


Counterstrike

by nofox



Series: Counterstrike/Aftermath [1]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Assassination, F/M, Manipulative Relationship, Mind Games, Morally Ambiguous Character, Team Talon (Overwatch), Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-15
Updated: 2017-04-14
Packaged: 2018-10-05 10:33:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 36,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10304942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nofox/pseuds/nofox
Summary: As Talon prepares a massive offensive in the midst of a global disinformation campaign, Jack Morrison hunts for Sombra. The trail leads him to Hana and Lucio and into her trap. However, when Sombra's eavesdropping on Hana and Lucio leaves her love sick and deeply hurt by what she hears, she turns to Gabriel to cope. Gossip spreads fast among spies. Now unofficially "Talon married" to him in a wholly unnatural, unhealthy and illicit relationship for the duration of her mission, Talon must work together to thwart Overwatch's rescue attempt as they become increasingly wise to Talon's manipulations.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is the sequel to [Movimiento 31 de Octubre](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9629930/chapters/21757022). Eventually with rewrites and edits you'll be able to get by without reading it but while this is so raw it might be necessary(ish). Its fun to read (I think!) so read it! This will take a little set up but it will get going quickly.
> 
> I gotta think of a name for this series...
> 
> EDIT: This piece is going through a substantial rewrite/I'm splitting it into two stories for the sake of organization. Hopefully nothing will break...
> 
> EDIT 2: I'm not sure I like where this is going with Sombra and Gabe's character (I really strove to make Sombra a sympathetic villain in my other stories and I feel like this backtracks all that). If you're interested in me continuing this piece give me a holla in the comments.

_Secret_

_No Foreign Dissem_

_Central Intelligence Agency_

_Directorate of Intelligence_

 

_Intelligence Memorandum_

_The Strength and Ability of Talon Forces to Conduct Military Operations Against the United States_

 

_Summary_

_Talon started as a small community of spies and mercenaries comprised mostly of former Blackwatch members. Today it is a supra state, an unconventional superpower with ties to almost every major terrorist organization and anti-western government in the world. Talon's long term goals are unknown, however, recent activities include expansionary behavior into disenfranchised nations, aggressive manipulation of international mass media, high volume investments in global finance markets, and cyberwarfare campaigns targeting the military, civil, and industrial infrastructure of most first world nations. Since the collapse of Overwatch, Talon has decisively drawn the world's geopolitical boundaries between the wealthy global North (primarily NATO and G6 nations) and the traditionally marginalized but increasingly economically powerful global South (China, India and their allies). Though not formally at war, a constant state of low intensity conflict between their proxy groups prevails while terrorism has become a fact of life..._

 

* * *

 

_New York City_

“Shit shit shit,” Sombra's quarry muttered to himself in frantic whispers.

It was midday and cloudy. He moved against the human traffic in the direction of Times Square, hoping the number of witnesses would deter his assassin.

“Sombra what are you doing?” said Reaper over her com piece.

“Bad timing. I'm tying up a loose end”

She pulled her com piece out of her ear as she followed the man on the opposite side of the street.

He dipped into a cab and gave a sigh of relief. With quick motions he loosened his skinny tie then fixed the cuffs on his fitted suit which had crawled up while he running.

“Just get me away from here,” he said throwing the cabby a hundred bucks.

The cabby hesitated with an expression of utter fear as if he had just experienced something unexplainable. Slowly, a purple gloved hand formed around his neck then extended into a forearm, an arm, a torso and a brown woman's face sporting violet lipstick and overdone eyes glaring with cool confidence and contempt. Her other hand held her machine pistol sporting a massive silencer aimed directly her man's head.

" _Que onda?_ "

“S-Sombra,” he stuttered.

“Writing about me again, I see”

“What the hell is this?” the Nigerian cabby complained, “I want no part—”

She pinched her machine sharpened nails into his jugular. “Shut up”

He shut up promptly.

“I have to say, Eliot, I'm impressed, spending your personal fortune chasing me, calling in favors from your friends in the NSA and CIA, you've wrecked your life for me, wouldn't be the first person who has...”

Eliot tried to go for the door. Sombra sprayed several shots at his hand. He wailed and recoiled in pain. 

“What the fuck are you doing?” shouted the cabby.

She'd had enough of him. Sombra ripped her hand off the cabby's throat leaving a long gash extending from his upper jaw to his jugular. The cabby slowly gagged and died as traffic started to move. A driver behind them honked in irritation. Sombra held the gun up and looked at Eliot almost affectionately as he writhed in pain.

“Just a moment,” she said activating her haptic keyboard, “its the taxi union that keeps human drivers a thing in New York City, the car is mostly automated anyways...”

With a few taps the car started to move with the flow of traffic.

“There we are”

Eliot moaned in agony, his hand a bloody mess.

“Eliot,” she said through his moaning, “Eliot! I'm trying to talk to you, we can't chat while you're making those horrible noises”

She sighed and held the gun to his head. He shut up.

“That got your attention. Now, I have to say, I liked your first article. I read the translation, _¿Quién es 'Sombra'?_ had a nice ring to it. I even would have let you publish your new one. The truth is no one would have believed you and it would have done no harm,” she said, her tone as if she were confiding in him, “but you made a _big_ mistake talking to Jack”

Eliot's eyes widened. He'd used every precaution, he'd secured every endpoint, used the highest level encryption available to consumers, he made sure all his devices were dark. How did she find out?

“You fucked up, Eliot. We had a relationship. I give you stories, you publish my leaks, you get published in Vice and Rolling Stone where no one cares and you get your Pulitzer. Hell, I even thought you were kind of cute, even if you are a little Jewy”

Eliot looked out the window for a moment. The world outside seemed unreal somehow as he was caught in this grim scene. No, he wouldn't checkout, he'd prepared for this. Eliot turned to Sombra and began to laugh slowly as he held his bloody hand. His laughter was dark and hysterical. Sombra held up her gun in honest confusion. She sighed.

“What is so funny, _cabron_? I'm here to kill you”

“Intimidating an investigative journalist? You really are just piss. I thought you were like me, you used to be some kind of hacktivist. Now look at you,” he said in utter contempt, “besides, I've been intimidated by deep state spooks my entire professional career. You think I'm afraid of dying? You think I haven't planned for this?”

Sombra smiled.

“You mean your deadman switch? That's funny, Eliot. You forget who you're dealing with. Look at your phone and look at your watch”

Eliot stopped smiling, his look turned distraught as a terrible sinking feeling formed in his chest. He went for his phone with his good hand. It was off, he couldn't turn it on. He turned his wrist. His watch had stopped too.

“So, I'm thinking the little piece of hardware you have that sends a signal when you die. That probably doesn't work either, friend”

“Why are you doing this?”

Sombra smiled.

“No other reason than pleasure,” she said before riddling his body with bullets.

She sighed and brought the car to a halt. With a few keystrokes on her haptic keyboard she deleted the footage on the cab's security camera. She stepped out and opened the back seat door.

“ _Traidor_ ,” she muttered as she pocketed Eliot's phone.

Sombra stepped away from the car and moved with the flow of human traffic turning a couple of street corners until she had some space to talk.

“Reaper, its done,” she said.

“Good, whats Jack's status?”

“Eliot spilled the beans, he knows Miguel and I are connected but I'm not sure if he knows how. He has the uncensored photo of me at the Lucio concert”

“Its only a matter of time before he moves on Miguel...” Reaper grumbled, "then there's you, I don't think you'll be able to keep your identity a secret much longer"

Sombra thought to herself. Her eyes panned the buildings on the street. By chance her eyes fell on one of the many news studios littering the area around Times Square. She could see cameras recording the news anchors through a large glass window. That's when she had an idea.

"What if we broke the story ourselves?"

 

* * *

 

_Later, Watchpoint Gibraltar_

Jack Morrison's eyes scanned the picture of the Los Muertos conspirators taken by chance in a split second at the Lucio concert in Mexico City last year. _How the hell could anyone get such a candid shot and live?_ he pondered as he sipped his coffee in front of the massive watchpoint terminal. It must have been minutes before it all went down.

Ana stepped behind Jack placing her hand on his shoulder.

“Long night?”

Jack pretended not to be surprised. Ana still had it, she had approached him in complete silence. If he were a target, he would be dead. 

"It hasn't even begun," Jack grumbled, "my contact in New York went radio silent and so did anyone willing to sell information on Sombra"

Ana was silent for a moment as she considered the grim consequences. She knew it meant their contact was dead and the trail on Sombra had once again gone dark. She crossed her arms.

"This is her and her friends," said Ana nodding towards the screen.

There they were. Sombrawas huddling them all together dressed like a Los Muertos chola. Miguel Loya, at the time a low ranking officer in the FLN, now the charismatic president of Mexico, stood with a vigilant look on his face as he patiently let himself be huddled. His politics had predictably shifted to the right to maintain order. The burly fellow, Bronson, Jack had no way of knowing, but he knew Sombra from before she was even in the gang, since she hacked commissioner Rivera. He had a look of brotherly affection towards Sombra as he wrapped his arm around her back. Lucio looked nervous but was being a good sport as he brought Hana into the circle. Hana, meanwhile, glared at Sombra in disgust.

“This is the last thing Eliot sent me,” said Jack, “she was toying with him, letting him publish whatever he wanted about her but when he tried to go public with this it _really_ pissed her off”

He zoomed in on Sombra's face.

“There she is, she's sloppy, arrogant, she steams in ahead without a plan and then mops up the mess later”

“Reminds me of someone I know...”

“I'll pretend I didn't hear that,” grumbled Jack, “she's different, a master hacker, infiltrator and a mass murderer. Its like some kind of game or balancing act for her. She gets into as much trouble as possible then covers her tracks like she was never there. Her abilities are superhuman. This is the clearest photo of her and she's still got that paint on her face. The guy that took it went broke and crazy, Eliot got a hold of it for a couple of bucks. Guy said she was hunting him”

“What about the big fellow?”

Jack zoomed in on the well-muscled chap's face. Athena pulled up several photos of him when he was younger to cross reference. His younger self was a vicious looking mustachioed man who kept a trim haircut and sported a vintage hipster handlebar mustache. 

“Carlos Gonzales. Don't know, he was an auto-mechanic in the 60's who bummed around Los Muertos squats for the punk music scene in their heyday. He started lifting weights and quit his job to join the gang full time. Then he robbed banks, diamond stores and bookies. No one had heard of him for a while until around when this photo was taken. Then no word of him since. He seems to have disappeared in the violence”

“I recognize him, even with the beard,” said Ana pointing to a fellow that resembled a young Che Guevara, "that's Miguel Loya"

“The new president of Mexico's got some dirty laundry it seems”

“And the kids?” asked Ana referring to Lucio and Hana.

“Celebrities. Boyfriend and girlfriend, engaged last year. I'm not sure how they got in this mess, dreadlocks has to know something”

“Mind if I drive?” asked Ana.

Jack leaned back and let her take control of the computer. She zoomed out to reveal the whole tableau.

“Look at her face, Jack. Don't count her out because she is young. The way she's looking at that Sombra woman, she hates her, she knows something too”

“Yeah,” said Jack taking a sip, “Lucio doesn't look too sure of her either”

“So what are we doing Jack?”

Jack sipped his coffee and sat silently, brooding over the picture.

“We'll check in with the kids to find Sombra, they look like they'll talk...”

 

* * *

 

_Rio de Janiero_

Hana and Lucio were stomping round his apartment in mid argument. He'd picked her up from the airport a few hours ago and their happy reunion turned sour. She'd heard a radio advertisement for an upcoming Sombra documentary and he accidentally hushed her from mentioning it. 

"You still won't talk to me about her!" shouted Hana, "you, your shady, Lucio. I don't know how you always seduce into thinking we can be normal with her"

"Hana, I'm sorry. I hate it too. I've tried everything to clear her bugs but she always finds out and it just pisses her off. Do you want her to come down here?"

"I dunno, Lucio. Do _you_ want her to come down here?" she said stamping her foot, "ugh, she still makes me so mad! And now her name's all over the news. God damn it, I can't get away!"

"Look, I'm over her. She tried to kill us. I've vowed to do what I can to stop her"

Hana glared at Lucio incredulously. She still didn't buy it. "Oh yeah?"

Someone buzzed Lucio's apartment door. He paused their argument and stepped over to the door buzzer.

" _Olá_?" said Lucio awkwardly over the intercom.

"Lucio, its Jack Morrison, its about your friend Sombra"

Jack waited outside for a response. There was some light bickering in the background before Lucio answered. "I don't know what you're talking about"

"Give it up kid, I'm with Overwatch. I know you were involved with her in Mexico"

The door buzzed and Jack entered the overgrown brutalist building. He rode the elevator to the top floor. When he knocked, Lucio opened the door abruptly looking over Jack's broad shoulders to see if he had brought anyone or if he was followed. Finally, he gave him the up and down and let him in. Jack entered Lucio's spacious contemporary apartment.

"Nice place," Jack grumbled.

Hana moodily stepped out of the living room wearing tights and a loose t-shirt, she returned wearing proper clothes. Briefly, Jack was reminded how old and sexless he was. Maybe he could repair things with Dr. Ziegler...

"So, what do you know about Sombra?" said Lucio bidding him to take a seat.

"Almost everything," replied Jack sitting across from Lucio.

The couple immediately got the sense that Jack was using some bullyish interrogation technique, nobody could know everything or anything about Sombra. He watched their expressions turn distrustful. "...but we're missing some key pieces, that's where you'll help," he continued.

Lucio and Hana exchanged looks. Jack was having trouble discerning the dynamic between the two. Hana cleared her throat and went to get something.

"Jack, my dude, aren't you supposed to be dead and isn't Overwatch abandoned?" said Lucio.

Jack gave a boyish smile. "Don't believe everything you hear on the news, kid"

"Less and less all the time... but I'm afraid I'm not in the business of tattling to dead people"

Hana came back with a whiteboard and scribbled something. She held the whiteboard up. _She can hear us._ She erased it and wrote _Keep talking normally_. Jack was impressed. Hana handed him the whiteboard. "Anyways, you have it all wrong, Sombra isn't even a real person..." she said.

 _Where is she?_ wrote Jack. Hana and Lucio shook their heads. _Last known location?_

"No, I assure you she is real, I've seen you two with her. You're hiding something..."

Lucio gave Jack the thumbs up and took the whiteboard. _She moves between Dorado, Mexico City and a secret Talon base._

"Oh yeah, where's your proof? Do you have a warrant? Who are you even working for? This just isn't going to work Jack..."

 _What's bugged?_ asked Jack.

 _Everything!!_ wrote Hana.

"Your chasing a shadow, Jack," said Hana, "you should leave before we call the cops"

 _I need your phone_ , wrote Jack.

Hana nodded and handed him her pink phone. He pocketed it after briefly inspecting it. Winston would have to take a look.

 _I want that back --and if you break it~!!_ she wrote.

 _OK!_ replied Jack and erased it. He had time for one more.  _Relation?_ he wrote. Hana and Lucio looked at each other confused. Jack sighed and added _-ship_. They nodded. Lucio took it and wrote, _friend_ / _old fan_.

"Well, I'm sorry I bothered with you damn kids," said Jack standing up, "I'll be on my way then"

Hana got up and hugged him unexpectedly, mouthing 'Thank you' as she hugged. He hugged her back. Lucio stood to shake Jack's hand.

"Get off my damn property," he said with a smile, he was keeping the performance up.

"Hey, that's my line," grunted Jack as they shook, kid after his own heart.

Jack left and made his way through Rio to the outskirts where Athena had parked the Orca.

"Commander Morrison, we'll have attracted attention from the Brazilian aviation authorities by now..." said Athena as he boarded the plane.

"It's time to leave, I got what we came for," he replied. Jack took out Hana's phone. _I got your number, Sombra_ , he thought to himself as the engines warmed up, _you'll never see it coming_. The transport dusted off and blasted at hypersonic speed towards Gibraltar. The denizens of Rio covered their ears from the sonic boom.

Back at the apartment, Hana and Lucio gazed at each other in relief as they felt a cloud pass. Sombra would finally be out of their lives for good. It wasn't so much Sombra dipping into Lucio's bank account and spying as much as the constant threat that she could destroy and destabilize everything. Now they felt like they could plan...

 

* * *

 

_Watchpoint Gibraltar_

Jack stood proudly in front of a large display showing a satellite view of the secret Talon base in the Azores.

"We've got her," announced Jack. Ana sat back in her chair unconvinced. "The kids were brilliant. It took an arm and a leg but I convinced Winston to crack the phone and he pinpointed her location," he said. "And look at this..." He played several frames showing a moving flashing red dot over the base. "It moves, money says it transmits directly to that computer on her back Eliot told me about. We really have her"

"But I don't see anything, Jack. Just the waves and a beautiful island," said Ana wistfully.

Jack raised his index finger. "Hold on," he said then pressed a button on Athena's command console. Ana shook her head at Jack's theatricality. Two green lines made several passes over the picture, sharpening and darkening the ocean pixels. Soon a massive underwater complex was revealed around the island. Athena added several markers designating their communications array, barracks, flight deck and unknown facilities in the base.

Ana blinked. "How could I have missed it? Guess my eyes aren't what they used to be," she chuckled. "But Jack, look at where she is. That's a fortified Talon base crawling with mercenaries and agents. We'll never get her"

"We can draw her out, we'll let it slip that we're moving on Miguel. She'll think she's got the drop on us and we nab her"

"How do we do that?"

"We let her know we have the phone. It's hot right? We'll say we're moving on Miguel, give the wrong place and time. Nab her, then go after Miguel when she's out of the picture. Or..." he said flicking his finger as an idea hit him, "we could hit them both at the same time"

"Good God, Jack. You want to beat her at her own game? I don't like this"

Jack gave Ana his well worn boyish smile. He had a strong feeling it would work. After all, Sombra was cocky. Maybe just as cocky as he was when he was young.

* * *

Sombra listened to their warbled voices over her headphones tucked away under the ocean in Talon's secret base. They really just had no clue, she knew that Jack had stolen Hana's phone when they wouldn't rat on her. Sombra's game was eons ahead. She'd hacked them last October when they foolishly extracted data from Jack's tactical visor. Yeah, the monkey was smart, he thought he'd taken every precaution but he was a scientist, if anything, not a hacker.

She got up from the desk of her small assigned dormitory and sauntered across the base to Talon's in-house production studios.

As she walked she scanned the faces of the agents that pass her by. It was quite interesting to Sombra, as Talon's money and resources increased more types of people were populating the base. Before it was just mercenaries and spies, then it was increasingly chemical/biomedical engineers and scientists, now it was financiers, media specialists, video and sound engineers, actors and directors. Talon was attracting the world's most immoral talent, it was only a matter of time before they emerged as the new ruling class.

The base's studios were a new addition, she'd proposed it to Talon's high command as apart of a new strategy. Talon was impressed with Sombra's ability to use social media to sway opinion, mobilize protests and ultimately to topple Portero's government. They wanted that power on a mass scale. Thus, Talon added broadcasting and video production to its docket. They'd been trying their hand at producing anti-western propaganda and news stories, meeting with some success. Occasionally they didn't even have to lie and AP would pick up their stories. The footage was shipped off to various state news agencies and Talon affiliated networks to be broadcast worldwide. Talon's productions were increasing in quality and the world was starting to notice.

Sombra arrived onset as they finished a scene for their newest project, an expose on the hacker Sombra. She called the director over and informed him that his documentary would now have a surprise twist...


	2. Chapter 2

_Secret Talon base, Azores_

Sombra had been listening to Hana and Lucio more closely since Jack payed them a visit. She'd been hearing their relationship fall apart on and off for months. The pattern went like this: Hana would leave to film a movie or enter a competition, start to miss Lucio and forget how mad she was about Sombra, they would talk incessantly over the phone and send each other romantic missives, she would come back and remember that Sombra was haunting them and slowly grow angry and suspicious of Lucio, repeat. The primary source of tension was that they knew Sombra was listening so they couldn't talk about her.

Hana was back from filming a commercial in South Korea and the cycle had started anew with the exception that Jack had interrupted. Now they seemed to be talking openly about her, what did that mean?

Sombra listened in on their warbled voices. She'd engineered a hack that had compromised every piece of hardware which could be turned into a microphone. She'd also written complementary software that collated the audio tracks in a way that intelligently filled in missing or incomplete data. The effect was a somewhat warbled sound where their voices would shift their direction as the feed dynamically switched to the device with the best audio and the software attempted to predict and to fill in incomplete data with audio from the other devices.

"Hana, I'm sorry about that last night in Mexico City. I shouldn't have left you. It didn't resolve anything with her," she heard Lucio say.

"I don't know, Lucio. I'm just mad you won't talk about what happened"

"It doesn't matter it was a fight," said Lucio. Sombra chuckled at Lucio's lie. She'd always liked dragging him through the mud and making him a shitty person. "Sombra twisted my head in a lot of ways. I was still thinking of her as my friend, I couldn't see her for who she was"

"I really think the person who helped you fight Vishkar is gone, you have to move on"

Sombra began to listen more intently. This was a curious conversation.

"It's more than that, Hana. I was really confused. I thought I was in love with her"

Hana was silent. Sombra began to hear sniffing and tears but she herself was frozen. Lucio knew she could hear... What was he saying?

Sombra's heart suddenly felt raw and a metallic taste formed in her mouth as she was overcome with dread. It was a learned dread, not because of what happened but because of the anticipation of how bad she was going to feel. A strange energy rose in her as her heart began to pump with adrenaline. She fixated on what she was hearing.

"No, it's OK. Lucio, I knew you had feelings for her, I know it's been hard for you to be betrayed by a friend," said Hana through her tears, "I'm hurt... really hurt, but I'm happy you finally told me"

"Well, I'm not in love with her. I'm over her Hana. She really is just gone. I think I can finally stop thinking about her," said Lucio pensively. There was a long silence. Sombra slumped in her arm. Why would he tell her like this? They were just words but, my God, they hurt.

“Its OK if you still have feelings for her... Its just been so obvious, Lucio. I know I've been jealous but I've seen her fuck with you for so long,” Hana said tearfully, “why else would you let her do that?”

“I know, I know, baby, its been wrong of me...” said Lucio softly, "I'm so sorry, I've been wrapped up in her head trip for so long"

Sombra assumed they were hugging from the silence.

"Oh hey, I got you something," he said after a while.

Hana sniffed. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, a present, I got it a while back when the tabloids were like 'when's the wedding?' saying we were gonna be engaged forever"

Sombra heard some shuffling, a tear streamed down her cheek.

"I was gonna give this to you when you got back but then Jack came and-," he started to over explain, "whatever... here it is!"

Hana laughed.

"No way!"

"Like it? It's like a second engagement"

"It's beautiful, Lucio!"

"Hey hey, check this out," Lucio cleared his throat.

"You're seriously getting on one knee?" laughed Hana.

"Hana 'D.Va' Song, will you be second engaged to me?"

Hana giggled.

"Yeah, I dunno... I guess I will..." said Hana feigning her best deadpan. Sombra heard the audio of their smooching and Hana giggling. "Hey, does this mean we get to have a second wedding?"

“Heh, sure thing, babe,” said Lucio sardonically.

The sounds of their kissing rapidly turned heated and soon she could hear Hana panting and sighing. Sombra trembled as she heard them make love, it wasn't good for her. It was odd, she'd heard it before and even thought it was funny. Indeed, Sombra was a total pervert. Hell, she'd even watched them have sex. But this time it set her off like dynamite. She threw the headphones off and stood up in outrage.

"Fuck _you!_ " she shouted tearfully. "Fuck you..." she repeated but this time it was a mere whimper.

She help her face in her hand. What was she going to do? The oddest feeling crept over her. It was the sense that Lucio was evil. He didn't care about Hana  _or_ her, he was manipulating both of them. He just cared about his God damned comfort.

Sombra felt the moment of their encounter reconfigure itself in her head. Lucio had spared her in their fight to the death. He could have killed her but instead he confessed his love to her. She could have killed him in that instant but instead she hesitated at his vulnerability. She clenched her fists as she was thrown back in the moment. She could have ripped his throat out.

That night she felt close to him in a way she'd never done with anyone else. The memory was Edenic to her, she had felt virginal with him. Now it had all gone to utter shit.

Sombra was on the verge of losing control, her body was making motions and carrying her out of her room...

Heavy footsteps pounded from outside the communications room door. The men at the listening post raised their heads as they neared the door. It opened and Sombra stormed in wearing her pajamas. She shoved a data stick containing the software she used to bug Lucio's apartment in the nearest officer's hand.

"I want a transcript and summary every 12 hours. I can't listen to this _fucking shit!_ " she shouted and stormed out.

The room of spooks looked at each other curiously. What the hell had set her off?

Quick as she left, Sombra was back in the chair of the spartan dorm Talon had assigned her. Her blood boiled, she didn't know that it could about something like this. She'd wanted Hana and Lucio to stay together, she wanted to be the master that pulled the strings in their relationship knowing forever that she had a dark sway over Lucio. But their encounter had given her a chance at something, it opened a world where she might be with Lucio, as mad as that all was. A hot feeling welled in the center of her head. The only thing that made it worse was how stupid she felt about it. She was the sociopath who didn't care, why this? Why now? The depression increased with the anger, the anger was fueled by the resent at how miserable she felt in a horrible feedback loop. A dark dark feeling hit her causing her to slump in her seat.

Suddenly, Sombra felt deeply compelled to hurt herself. She flicked her nails and stared at their points for a moment as her vision blurred with tears. No, that wouldn't do it. It never did.

She looked around the Talon dormitory for something to do when a thought hit her. No, she was in control. She smiled and wiped her eyes on her wrist then rose herself and slinked out the door.

"Hey," said Sombra as Reaper opened his door.

"What the hell do you want?" he asked, clearly irked by her sultry tone.

She forced her way in.

"I need help with something," she replied, this time her voice was impatient.

Reaper raised an eyebrow. "You never need help"

Sombra frowned and closed the door behind her locking it. She began to undress.

"You're unstable," he said watching her make short work of her clothes, "you wouldn't prefer to be with a female agent?"

Sombra tilted her head and smiled condescendingly.

"Don't be so full of yourself, Gabe," she replied, "I know what I'm doing"

"Right..."

Soon Sombra was standing almost naked in her lingerie in front of Reaper.

"So, you got a condom or what?"

"No need," he said simply, "I'm dead"

Sombra hmm'd in amusement.

" _This_ won't be a problem then?" she said stepping up to him and grabbing his crotch.

"No, it won't"

"Good," she said with fake sweetness.

She sat in Reaper's desk chair and gestured, "well?"

Reaper grunted in disdain and undressed. When he finished, Sombra stood and approached him regarding Gabriel's battle-hardened body. She did some mental gymnastics to get her animal desires in line with her self-destructive urges. It wasn't hard, he was quite attractive by some stupid hetero-normative standard. But in truth, she wanted to kill herself, this was the next best thing—something like self-negation. She wanted to be used. Sombra didn't have to do the work, Gabriel obliged and made the first move.

They didn't like each other, they knew exactly what they were getting into and thus proceeded to have the most sociopathic sex of their lives.

He raised her hands above her head and fucked her hard against the door. Sombra was usually a talker during sex but she just glared hatefully at Gabriel in silence as she let herself be taken, he stared back at her with a cold objectifying gaze. Eventually, he was able to inarticulately hit her pleasure spots enough for her to orgasm. Gabriel turned her around and finished inside of her soon after.

When it was over neither had to tell the other they wanted to be left alone. Sombra silently collected her things and walked back to her room with an odd feeling of satisfaction.

Widowmaker was waiting outside her door with a frown.

"So, you are into men who abuse you?"

"You're jealous," said Sombra.

Widowmaker was Reaper's closest confidant and right hand woman. She prided herself on being able to manipulate him. Something even Sombra couldn't do. In Sombra's mind Widowmaker now saw her as a threat.

Widowmaker laughed cruelly. "Of you? No. You clearly hate yourself"

Sombra tried to push her out of her way in agitation but she grabbed Sombra's wrist.

"Next time you feel the need to go to him. Talk to me," she said sternly.

She let go of Sombra's wrist and glared at her with angry eyes. Widowmaker's motivations were unclear to Sombra. She pushed by Widow and disappeared into her room.

Sombra undressed and crawled into bed. It was an odd thing sleeping with a man who could decompose himself into smoke and appear anywhere at anytime, a veritable ghost. What if he became possessive? She shuddered from the thought that he could be there with her at that moment. 

She slept fitfully.

 

* * *

 

_The next day..._

"Sombra!" came Reaper's voice from outside her door.

"Fuck!" she shouted waking abruptly, "what do you want?"

"You overslept. I'm being deployed back to Mexico, I'm taking you with me"

Sombra rubbed her head. _Ugh, the implications_. The Mexico mission had been hers. What had Talon just done? What had Reaper just done? He was an enforcer, a brutal intimidator and assassin. Whatever they would have him do down there would be brutal and coercive. Not her bag. So, why did he want her? As a sex slave? The implications swilled uncomfortably in her head.

"Sombra!" he yelled again.

" _Mierda_ , I got you the first time!"

"We're leaving in 5"

She dressed and made her way to the flight deck. As she walked, Talon agents skittered by her. She was used to their dirty looks and gossip but now they were looking at her as if she was cursed. Secrets spread fast among spies. _Plenty of women must have slept with Gabe_ , she thought, _I can't be the first since his 'accident' can I?_ Their weird looks indicated otherwise. Reaper was the most feared Talon agent, Sombra was the most loathed. Some unholy marriage had occurred in the soft minds of her fellow agents.

Widowmaker joined Sombra, hauling her rifle and trailing a small piece of expensive looking luggage behind her. She resembled deranged French tourist. Reaper had requested her as well.

"You've really done it," she said under her breath.

"What, these _culos_ can't mind their own business?"

"At least we will all be working together..." she said as they stepped on the utility elevator.

Their flight crew met them and went white when they realized who they were working with.

" _Aye yaie yaie_ ," muttered Sombra, “what is this Scarlet Letter bullshit?”

They were raised to the surface where they met Reaper.

"So, Halloween's finally over," jeered Sombra, "no mask today, Gabe?"

Reaper grumbled and Widowmaker rolled her eyes. At least their dynamic was intact.

"Shut up. Sombra, your bug picked up movement from Gibraltar, Jack's moving on Miguel. We have less than 48 hours to intercept him"

“Why didn't they go to me?” asked Sombra, clearly pissed.

Reaper grimaced. “They figured it would be the same thing if they just told me...” he said in a low tone.

Widowmaker blinked.

“Fucking misogynist spooks,” muttered Sombra. The gears turned in her head, their little community of spies was sending her a message.“OK, lets go stop your boyfriend,” she said in an aggravated tone as she stepped onto their aircraft's loading ramp.

"Just get on the plane," Reaper grunted.

"Well, this will be a simply lovely flight..." said Widowmaker sarcastically.

Soon enough they were airborne.

Sombra sat laid back across from Reaper and Widowmaker with a small table between them. She was in a foul mood. Her mind had run aground on Lucio and Hana. It had become a trigger for her, sending her spiraling into depression. She felt jealous for the first time in her life and it was unbearable, she couldn't just reduce them to sexual conquests. They had each other. It pained her that she didn't have anyone. In lieu of drugs which were banned on the Talon base, Sombra had to distract herself otherwise.

"Hey Gabe, I need to talk to you," said Sombra moodily.

Gabriel's eyes shifted.

She fixed her gaze on him eyeing him like a shark. Widowmaker had been sitting calmly with her legs elegantly crossed reading a computer tablet the whole flight, her steely nerves immune to their dynamic. She lowered her tablet and rested her chin lightly on her knuckles to watch their game. They stared past her. Neither betrayed a hint of attraction, physical or otherwise, to the other. Both somehow projected the extreme inconsequence of their having sex. Reaper knew that she knew that he was going to say yes but couldn't let her know, that would make him look weak. There was also the question of when and how, he would have to find the exact right way to say yes without seeming overeager, to keep the fact they were hooking up ambiguous to everyone listening and to maintain his air of authority and dominance over her. Then there was the fact that they both knew she was using sex as a drug: the longer he kept her waiting the more tortured and resentful she would become, the more she would hate him as her relief was postponed but it would only make her all the more submissive...

The pilot and the copilot shifted and pulled their collars uncomfortably as the two continued their death stare at each other for what felt like a small eternity. It was up to Gabriel if this was going to happen.

“Later,” he grumbled getting up and stepping past Widowmaker.

Widow folded her legs so he could get by, Sombra kept her eyes fixed on him like a cat as he moved. Once he was out of the room, Sombra got up to follow him.

“ _Quell déception_ ,” Widow muttered under her breath as she shook her head and returned to her tablet.

 * * *

Widowmaker drank dark coffee as Sombra and Gabriel indiscreetly fucked in the airplane bathroom.

"Do you think his body is warm or cold?" asked the pilot.

"What are you, gay? I want to know how he keeps it up," replied the copilot, "I mean, does the guy even have blood?"

"So what if I am? And like that's _not_ gay. But think about this: what if he just lost focus and turned into smoke while they did it?"

"Yeah, good point," the pilot mused, "oh hey, I got one. Do you think his jizz is like black or maybe it's just smoke?"

"Dunno"

"And her, she's even more of a freak than I thought... I mean, I thought she was a lesbian. Turns out she's bisexual and into necrophilia"

Widowmaker slammed her mug down against the table to indicate her distaste. They shut up.

Sombra was incorrigible, man or woman or otherwise, once she knew she could get sex she couldn't help but indulge at any free moment. Widowmaker had always found Sombra's sexual habits exhausting but this was new, she couldn't stand them as a pair. It was all just so... unhealthy. Widowmaker turned on the news to drown out the sounds of their infernal lovemaking.

"Wikileaks and a variety of prominent news agencies reported massive dumps of files from anonymous sources regarding Sombra, the infamous hacker collective. This is in the run up to the controversial premier of 'Sombra Revealed: The World's First Look at History's Most Dangerous Hacker' the largely crowd funded documentary set to premier on several major networks. At least one of which has The film purports that the widely known hacker group, the Sombra Collective, is actually a single person, the identity of whom is a closely guarded secret. The production of the film has been undertaken under the utmost secrecy to preserve the impact of the reveal. The director, Lars Ameridge, widely considered an eccentric personality, put the entire production staff, even interns, under strict non-disclosure agreements while using techniques to preserve secrecy similar to those in the Manhattan project. This latest round of leaks, however, is speculated to have come from inside Ameridge's team since they corroborate evidence that Sombra is an individual and not a group. Lars had this to say..."

Lars spoke at a fast clip in a Brooklyn accent. "Degenerates, swine fiend dick mothers, if I could choke them in a pool of their own ass, I would-"

"The rest is largely considered incoherent and unfit for broadcasting..."

* * * 

They touched down in a Talon airbase outside of Mexico City. The new Mexican flag flew its red, black and yellow pattern proudly at the airbase. Their visit was unexpected. There were no staff to meet them. Talon had not warned Miguel about the impending attack. They had other plans...

"Where's the warm welcome?" asked Sombra stepping out of the aircraft.

"The government doesn't know we're here, we're using this attack as leverage to back them into a better bargaining position," Reaper explained.

"Hey, that's _my_ government you're talking about, _cabron_ ," said Sombra grabbing Reaper's collar.

Reaper pried Sombra's hands off.

"Details," he said darkly, "get set up inside the base”

Widowmaker pretended not to notice they were touching each other as she walked by with her equipment. Reaper continued to hold Sombra's hand forcefully.

"You _won't_ be a distraction," he said sternly.

"Heh," chuckled Sombra, "I'll try my best, _amigo_ "

"That wasn't a request," he said jerking down her hand.

" _Tu crees muy muy_ ," muttered Sombra rubbing her wrist.

It was hard to believe he was just grunting and sweating over her. She'd made him cum, the least she deserved was a little respect. Sombra considered shouting that to him but held her tongue. At least he was opting to stay in human form...

 


	3. Chapter 3

"The President of Mexico is giving a speech today at Zócalo Square," stated Jack placing his hand down on the Orca's briefing table, "he'll be out in the open, this is the perfect time to strike"

The table displayed a 3d topographical map of the target area. It was Mexico City, their destination. Ana nodded at Jack's comment but Reinhardt wasn't convinced. He folded his arms and looked to the side somewhat resentfully.

"Got a problem soldier?" asked Jack

"Where is the honor in striking such a vulnerable prey?"

"Miguel Loya is on the Talon payroll, don't let his new presidential demeanor fool you, he's an experienced guerrilla fighter who spent years picking unfair fights," explained Jack.

"I apologize, covert operations are not my specialty. I like to confront my quarry head on and crush them in honorable combat," said Reinhardt smashing his fist in his palm.

"That's why _you_ will stand in the crowd as security. If the president tries to escape you'll anchor him in place, my dear" said Ana.

Reinhardt looked at Ana obliquely then cleared his throat.

"Of course, m'lady," he replied putting his chivalry on display, "it would be my honor"

Ana covered her mouth in amusement. "Really, Reinhardt..."

Jack raised an eyebrow, at least the old woman would keep him in line. Courtly love really was some shit.

"Focus people, this is a two pronged operation. I've intentionally leaked our plans to Talon. The catch is I gave her the wrong building, Ana will be on the other side. I'll track Sombra's movements with the device Winston prepared and strike when she thinks she's got the drop on us. Ana will have full coverage of the target area. She'll take out Miguel, I'll take out Sombra, we'll support each other if necessary. We hit the targets and scramble for the extraction zone. In and out. Got it?"

"Understood," replied Reinhardt.

"Affirmative," followed Ana.

"Remember, she knows we're coming. She thinks she's hunting us, so its guaranteed she will be there. Understood?"

Reinhardt and Ana nodded.

"OK, lets do this"

 

* * *

 

_Mexico City, Zócalo Square_

It was almost zero hour. Everyone was in position. Reinhardt stood semi-conspicuously at the head of the large crowd gathered to see one of their new charismatic presidents many speeches. Ana had just managed to sneak past the inexperienced RPM troops into the abandoned Old City Hall. Jack waited in a Hawaiian shirt and dad shorts at the Gran Hotel Ciudad de México monitoring Sombra's movement on a GPS device.

"I'm in position," Ana whispered over her com piece.

Ana had a perfect view of the stage where Miguel would perform his speech. The stage was prominently draped in FLN, EZLN and other radical left-wing party flags of Miguel's new Unidad Izquierda party. She set up her rifle and lined up her shot on the podium.

"Understood," Jack replied swiveling his neck for signs of a purple haired woman with a conspicuous bump on her back.

"Jack, do you have a visual on your target?" Ana queried.

Reinhardt narrowed his eyes as Miguel stepped to the podium. He shifted as he heard Jack and Ana's radio chatter. He would have to move quickly if something unexpected went down.

"She's close..."

Jack carried a duffel bag with his Soldier 76 outfit, a pulse rifle and his tactical visor ready to slip into a room and change at a moments notice. She was in the square but there was no sign of her. It was hard to believe that she was so close.

Reinhardt watched as Miguel began his speech. " _Compañeros_ , Red Army and Red Navy men, commanders and political instructors, men and women workers, men and women collective farmers, intellectuals, brothers and sisters in the enemy rear who have temporarily fallen under the yoke of the enemy brigands, our glorious men and women guerrillas who are disrupting the rear of the enemy invaders..."

Sombra was in range of Jack, somewhere in the building, he should be able to see her soon... A film crew stepped into the hotel setting off Jack's nerves. Not wanting to take any risks being caught, he decided to check into a room at the last moment. He sped along the formalities and took the keycard before hustling to the room to change into his Soldier 76 outfit. As he changed he felt lucky to have his old friends. Jack was a fair man and a soldier, he'd have his revenge but he'd make it painless. Sombra was going to pay...

"Jack, do you see her?" whispered Ana, "Jack?"

"She's in the building, I'm suiting up"

It was seconds to zero hour. 

Ana stared down her scope. Miguel had marched directly into her line of fire, with some minor adjustments his head was lined up perfectly in her sights. She watched him mouth his speech wordlessly behind a great podium with a line of seated men and women to his right. Her finger delicately felt the resistance of the precision trigger of her biotic rifle, just a matter of time. She'd done this untold times before with deadly accuracy.

Jack stepped out of his room and marched down the hallway to where he was sure Sombra was. He'd left his rifle in the room, he was confident he could over power her. There she was, dyed hair and a side shave. He grabbed Sombra from behind and she froze. He turned her around... Only it wasn't her. The woman started complaining at him in Spanish and struggling. Jack let go in horror and clumsily apologized.

"Ana, it was a false alarm, its not her," Jack hissed over her comm piece as he scrambled back to his room, "take the shot, do it now!"

She had just begun to squeeze the trigger when the cold metal of a gun barrel tapped the back of her skull then disappeared. Just enough of an indicator to let her know her assassin was a professional.

“Ana Amari," said a woman's voice from behind.

The woman pocketed her biotic grenades and sleep gun then pulled the com piece out of her ear with her free hand as she held the gun to her head.

"Ana? Ana? Do it now-," Jack was cut off as she deactivated it.

"Shit," cursed Ana. It was worse than that, the woman said her full name. She was really screwed. "How do you know that name?" said Ana dropping her rifle and putting her hands up.

"Heh," chuckled Sombra, "not so fast, before I reveal everything,  _abuela._ " Ana started to turn to look at her assassin. "No no no," she said, "don't turn, you are far too dangerous. Besides, you already know who I am. Just enjoy the speech..."

"Damn thing! Lost her..." Jack cursed as he fidgeted with his com piece.

Reinhardt had had enough. He began to move through the crowd towards the hotel. "Jack, I'm coming to you!"

"No! Stay put. That's an order!"

There was a knock on the door of Jack's room. "People's protection, open up!"

"Shit!" cursed Jack.

He loaded his assault rifle.

Ana watched the square in front of the bombed out National Palace from her vantage point. Her eyes zeroed on Jack being hauled out of a building in handcuffs by PPU officers.

"There's two little piggies," taunted Sombra, "where is the third?"

Reinhardt stood in the crowd nervously as the melodramatic communist speech droned on. "Jack, Ana, what are we doing?" he asked desperately over his com piece.

He looked around him. People's protection units were closing in on all sides. Ana watched Reinhardt helplessly from her vantage point.

"Call the mission off," ordered Sombra in a steely tone, "do it"

Sombra stepped closer to Ana and held the com mike to her mouth. She was more vulnerable but there was still no chance Ana could disarm her and survive. Her reflexes weren't what they used to be.

"Its over Reinhardt, get out of there," Ana said with resignation.

"Understood..."

Sombra dropped the mic and crushed it under her heel.

Suddenly, Miguel interrupted his speech.

"I understand there's a member of Overwatch in the crowd," said Miguel. An anonymous tip was sent in, his aides piped it into his ear piece and he decided to make an impromptu adjustment to his speech. "Bring him to the stage, bring our friend to the stage"

Reinhardt shuffled awkwardly. A PPU officer grabbed his massive bicep and tugged him through the crowd towards the stage. Apprehensively, he decided not to resist. Soon he was standing up with Miguel in front of the massive audience.

Miguel put his hand on Reinhardt's massive back. "Reinhardt, despite the world's misgivings with Overwatch, you and Overwatch are beloved by the people of Mexico. Do you have any words for them?"

"Uhh," he balked.

"Don't be shy, _señor_. You are surrounded by friends," Miguel reassured him.

He cleared his throat.

"Uh, remember my comrades, justice will always prevail!"

The crowd went wild. Sombra cracked a small smile.

"Oh, Reinhardt, dear..." murmured Ana as she watched him from the Old City Hall window, "comrade means something different for them..."

Back on the stage, Miguel's eyes twinkled with amusement. This really was an interesting turn of events. He suspected this had something to do with his Talon friends.

"You hear that? He called us comrades," said Miguel clapping then patting him on the back, "very good, very good indeed..."

Reinhardt nervously waved to the crowd before being escorted away by the PPU officers with a film crew in tow.

That was it, their jam was completely thwarted. Sombra pumped Ana's sleep dart into her shoulder and she slumped to the ground unconscious.

"Reaper," she said over her com piece, "I'm done here"

He grunted approvingly in response.

Sombra cloaked as she heard the sounds of hustling soldiers. People's protection officers flooded the room along with a film crew surrounding the unconscious old woman. They were there on a tip.

"Get these cameras out of here!" ordered the PPU captain, "What are they doing here? I want this place locked down!"

Quickly, the officers secured the scene and collected her strange weapon as the film crew protested. The PPU captain on site inspected the unconscious woman's face, noting her unusual facial tattoo. They'd just played a role in something very bizarre... but what?


	4. Chapter 4

“Jack, Jack, Jack," sang Sombra waltzing into his detention cell, "Jacqueline, Jackypoo, jack-in-the-box, Jackass, Jack shit, Jack-off, Jack..."

Sombra trailed off.

"Boy you are in a mood," he grumbled.

Jack knelt on the floor with his hands handcuffed behind his back and his legs in shackles. Such treatment was illegal by the new government's laws but special prisoners were handled by Talon and processed at this very black site.

"Ugh, English is so fun," she said looking at the ceiling with a smile. She stepped close and took his cheeks in her hand. "I got youuuu," she said then laughed. "Man, I'm just so glad we can hangout again, we have so much to do, I was just so disappointed you left early last time..."

"Do you blame me? I can't say I like your idea of a good time"

Sombra squinted at him and smiled condescendingly.

"Aww, _pobrecito_ , they were just punks. Now you get to hang out with me and my Talon friends," she said caressing his face with false affection, "although there are better ways to meet in Mexico City. I know so many good bars..."

Jack grinned.

"Sure thing, Sombra"

Her neck recoiled and a look of contempt grew on her face. For some reason she had found that infuriating.

"Only my friends can call me that," she said darkly as she let go and turned her back to him.

"What we aren't friends, Sombra? I've been following you for a while now. I feel like we've got a lot in common," said Jack playing it up.

Sombra blinked incredulously, moving her neck around like a bird before turning to let the idiot speak for her amusement.

"I got your card, Sombra. You have no friends, you're a loner. Sick and sad," mocked Jack.

Jack had interrogated and even employed a number of master hackers, they were all the same: incontrovertible loners and anti-social types.  

"Oh yeah?" she said narrowing her eyes at him.

Did he have any idea what she could do to him? Did he really think he could play mind games with her? She'd beaten him so badly already...

"Yeah, and you're arrogant too, just like I was when I was young. But what are you now? You must be getting on, what are you 29? 30? Sure you're beautiful now, but soon you'll look like me. Happens sooner than you think..."

Sombra's nostrils flared as she was taken back yet again. Did he actually _want_ her to torture him? He was getting a rise out of her. Jack tried to play at what Lucio had told him and rub salt in the wound. She was an old friend and fan of sorts. He gambled that if Sombra had known enough to bust his plan, she knew about Lucio's betrayal.

"I also know what it's like to be betrayed by a friend. I know what it's like to grow old filled with anger and regret"

 _What the hell is he talking about?_ Sombra didn't want to know, she was leaking information like a sieve but she ran the numbers. The probability that it related to her and Lucio was small. The chance that Jack somehow knew her history prior to the point at which it was deleted was impossible. However, it hurt nonetheless. She'd had enough of him, her mood had run foul. 

"Why Jack, I had no idea you had it in you. And if I wasn't mistaken you might even have feelings for me," she said, her tone turning hateful.

Jack scoffed.

"But as much as I'm enjoying this little chat," she said through her teeth as she stepped up to him, "the world marches on. Take a look at this Jackypoo." She wrapped her arm around his shoulder and displayed a hologram of a news broadcast with the title "Sombra Revealed: The World's First Look at History's Most Dangerous Hacker" in front of his face. "I think you're gonna like it, it's got a big reveal," she said cockily, "surprise, its you"

Jack watched the excessively dramatic documentary titles unfold. The announcer, who looked something like a young Gina McKee, appeared against a stark background.

"Just who was Sombra? The world's most dangerous hacker, long thought to be a loose collective of extremists, is dead. So, freedom fighter or terrorist? Benefactor of the poor or criminal mastermind? Are we better off without her--yes, _her_?" The woman paused for dramatic effect and turned to face a different camera, sashaying towards it confidently. "And what of her killer, a former Overwatch agent? Should we all collectively sigh in relief or reel in throws of terror at the fact that we are still under the authoritarian yoke of Overwatch. Our dramatic story unfolds in Mexico City..."

"She's pretty good right?" said Sombra smiling.

Jack gave an exasperated grumble. He was starting to get a sense of the type of women Talon recruited.

Another announcer with a Northern Irish accent spoke in a voice-over of fake footage interspersed with footage of Jack's capture. "The sounds of panic and gunshots, a botched raid on an apparently innocuous hotel room and the body of a dead woman seemingly mutilated by computer hardware. Details of a grisly scene as Mexican police, now called the people's protection units, escort a masked man from the scene of the crime. A struggle, the mask comes off and who else is it but Jack Morrison, the wanted leader of Overwatch, long thought dead, now apparently a vigilante. His victim: a cybernetically augmented woman. Computer forensic experts analyze her hardware and find evidence of millions of hacker raids costing untold billions of dollars in damages. Shocked reactions abound, it's Sombra. A one woman cyber army, dead. But just who was Sombra? Was the former commander right to play judge and jury and end the life of the notorious hacker or-"

Sombra cut the video.

"Bravo," said Jack unamused, "no one is gonna believe that bullshit"

"The world believes what the media tells them and I tell the media what to say," she said unraveling herself from Jack, "it's really that simple"

She stepped towards the door.

"You done?" asked Jack.

Sombra chuckled.

"Yeah, I'm done," she said lightly shaking her head. The room seemed to chill and darken. "But he's not"

A dark figure in a barn owl mask materialized in front of Jack. _No_ , thought Jack in horror, _its impossible_. Was he hallucinating?

"Hey," it said simply.

"Have fun boys," jeered Sombra stepping out of the cell.

 

* * *

 

_Rio de Janeiro_

"Lawl, I win again," teased Hana as Lucio's Tekken character kicked in frustration at his defeat.

"Hana, really... its like unnatural how good you are"

She victoriously sipped her Mountain Dew.

"That's fuggin' D.Va biiitch," she said belching through the "i's."

Lucio was taken aback. "I really cannot handle you right now..."

"1v1 me noob," she said pounding the 'start' button repeatedly so they could rematch.

"That's this whole game, you are killing me as Baek"

"You're Eddy, you just have to mash buttons, you aren't even trying"

"I'm tryna like use technique. I actually know Capoeira"

"Suffer noob," said Hana executing a perfect 10 hit combo.

"Man, this guy just does not represent Brazilians well," said Lucio watching his character get juggled by a flurry of kicks. "Aaaand, I'm dead." Lucio tossed his controller down with a twirl as he was KO'd. "How do you turn this thing off? Damn"

Lucio went for the remote and switched to cable. The excessive titles for the world premiere of "Sombra Revealed" unfolded before them.

"I'll just put it back..." he mumbled.

"No, stay," asserted Hana, her eyes narrowed.

The host stood in front of an large graphic of Sombra as if she were regarding it. Sombra was pale and naked, splayed out on an operating table. Her spine was exposed to the air and her flesh looked necrotized.

"Horrifying yes? These images are graphic but, well, we warned you," said the host walking towards the camera, "if you're just joining us, sorry, there's no going back now and I'm afraid greater and more sustained trauma is to come. More horrifying still is the task of imagining the deranged mind that could do this to her own body. So, what is the story behind the girl who traded her personality for processing power? Her soul for cycles per second? Her brain," she paused with a devastating eyebrow raise, "for bits"

"What the hell are we watching?" asked Lucio.

Hana had gone quiet. More pictures of Sombra with her components stripped out flashed on the screen.

"Oh my God, that's actually her... is she dead?"

The host continued. "The chilling autopsy-"

"Autopsy!?" shouted Lucio.

"-revealed a bevy of radical changes and augmentations to her physical person including laser sharpened nails that could slice the armor off a German Panzer--violet was her favorite nail polish, an EMP bomb from her back to her butt..."

Hana blinked.

"Lucio, I never thought I would ask you this..."

"Yes, Hana?"

"Am I a bad person if I'm happy someone is dead?"

Lucio hesitantly laughed.

"Well, I think Sombra is the exception," he muttered in disbelief.

Hana grinned perversely. Lucio checked his phone. Reports where everywhere of Sombra being dead, killed by Jack Morrison.

"My God, its real..." said Lucio as an ambiguous feeling of guilt and relief set in.

He watched the woman hostess flash striking looks at the camera, she was loving every moment of the controversy, playing it up with ironic detachment. It hit home the fact that he had betrayed Sombra. Jack really had done her in. He wasn't sure what he had expected, certainly not that he would kill her. But he and Hana were finally free, as ambiguous as it all felt.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Overwatch plans to mobilize. A female Talon officer gets her yucks. Widowmaker and Sombra exchange some friendly locker room banter.

_London_

Lena's cellphone buzzed, she swallowed and forced herself to turn away from the spectacle unfolding on the television. It was Angela. _Are you seeing this?_ There was only one thing she could be talking about. Emily leaned on her shoulder, utterly captivated, barely noticing that Lena had gone white with terror.

The svelte hostess strolled towards the camera with a self-satisfied smile, she knew she had her audience by the balls. “Jack Morrison and Ana Amari, alive after all; Overwatch, potentially active yet again to impose its authoritarian vision upon the world. What had Sombra uncovered that made her a target of these _disappointing_ heroes turned renegades? Had she gotten too close and finally too in over her head when she uncovered a new Overwatch conspiracy? The coming days will tell...”

The report was confirming what Jack had suspected about the identity of Sombra last year but was interspersed with obvious anti-Overwatch propaganda. But no word about her Talon connection. Lena couldn't tell what was true and what wasn't. It was impossibly candid, digging into every juicy detail of Sombra's life with sensationalist glee.

“This is bloody fascinating,” muttered Emily.

“She really is going all ham,” commented Lena, "you think a word of this is true?"

Emily perked up. "I don't care! Its so juicy. This Sombra lady is fascinating, all the sex, drugs and violence and her country was so ghastly, especially to women, no wonder she became a revolutionary." Suddenly, her eyes became a little starry as she spoke. "It would be incredible if an eighth of it was true. And its not what they _do_ have, imagine what they  _don't_ , she bloody deleted her identity. All this and they still don't know who she really is!" Emily sighed. "I dunno, my life is so boring, just imagining this girl makes me feel empowered. She might of been a baddy but she was tough and she stood up for what she believed in. I just wish those bloody Overwatch people had butt out, there's too few people like that in the world..."

Lena was silent. How she longed to tell Emily what she really did for work. Suddenly, an encrypted group text opened up causing her phone to buzz in rapid succession. 

> Angela: _Where is Jack?_
> 
> Winston: _Jack, Ana and Reinhardt went dark a few days ago_
> 
> Pharah: _Are they OK?_
> 
> Pharah: _I can't deal with this. I'm getting calls from reporters all over the world._
> 
> Winston: _Athena's flight logs say they went to Mexico City_

Winston posted an article from a Mexican state news agency, _Reinhardt gives blessings to Mexican Revolution._

> Winston: _This was published after they went dark. There's no mention of him being involved in Sombra's death. Not sure about the source. The new Mexican government has a somewhat postmodern approach to propaganda_
> 
> Winston: _I did some work for Jack tracing the source of a bug on a hacked phone. I think this is my fault. I'm sorry everyone_
> 
> Torbjorn: _Don't kick yerself, big guy._ _Jack is a stubborn a-hole._ _I could've told ya it was only a matter of time before he got too close. He said he was going with or without us_
> 
> Angela: _We said we weren't getting involved_
> 
> Angela: _I'm getting the calls too_
> 
> Angela: _We are being made an example of_
> 
> Winston:  _Athena is picking up a massive amount of Talon activity in Latin America_

The texts went quiet for a moment.

“Wow, your phone is blowing up,” noted Emily. 

> Angela: _So I assume we are meeting up?_
> 
> Pharah: _I want my mother back, Angela_
> 
> Pharah: _We're getting them out of there_
> 
> Winston: _Athena is dispatching Orca's to your drop zones at 0900 tomorrow._

“Must be incredible to be able to think in code. And my God, all the women she's been with. She's like a Don-fucking-Juan. Just look at her hair, you can tell she's queer. They keep calling her a terrorist, I don't know if this documentary is fair to her”

There was a sick feeling in Lena's stomach.

“I don't think she was one of us, luv...”

“You OK, Lena?” Emily asked looking up at her from her shoulder.

“Just some trouble at work, I have to fly out tomorrow morning”

“Oh nooo,” Emily crooned, “for how long?”

“Not sure, luv”

“Aw, at least I'll have this to keep me company, its running for three days. I'm completely hooked,” said Emily nestling back into her shoulder. “Its unbelievable...”

 

* * *

 

Sombra sat in the small dormitory she'd been assigned ruminating in front of her computer terminal, victorious. She was reading the transcript of Hana and Sombra talking about the documentary, trying to figure out what to do with them. They were having more sex, going out more, making plans. It infuriated her. They were accursed, a loose end, they weren't supposed to be alive. Why didn't they just die in the explosion in Zócalo like they were supposed to? Sombra didn't know how to get rid of them and their happiness made her miserable. They'd been like this since Jack visited.  _Since Jack visited_. The thought repeated itself and mixed with a twisted self-destructive reasoning. 

Her eyes shot open.

How had it slipped by her?

"No," she said with a contemptuous grimace. Sombra's mood started its downward spiral, she felt her veins bunch up with murderous rage. " _You fucking wanted me dead, Lucio?!_ " she screamed, "you _fucking_ bastard!"

She heard a knock on her wall. "Sombra," came Widowmaker's muffled voice through the wall, " _tais-toi!_ "

Sombra collapsed into her forearms and sobbed as she was overcome with a severe loneliness. Lucio was her only friend in the world, what had she done? Why did she allow herself to be so vulnerable? Why was she so stupid to catch feelings for him when he'd been a toy all this time? _No,_ she thought. She remembered she'd been riding a manic high of revenge and power when she tried to detonate Lucio. There hadn't been a hint of hesitation. She just needed to get back there...

* * *

"Hey, Gabe," said Sombra leaning in Reaper's door.

"Oh, its you, I've been meaning to talk to you," he grumbled.

"That's interesting," she said meaning that it was very boring. She let herself in and wrapped her arms around his neck. Before Reaper could say anything she was kissing him.

"Hold it," he said putting his hand up and pushing her face away. Sombra huffed impatiently, giving Reaper an utterly foul 'are you serious?' look. "I wanted to let you know that we just barely pulled your mission back from oblivion"

Sombra felt her anger spike.

"What did you say?" she replied with palpable irritation, "three Overwatch agents just fell into our lap from _my_ intel"

"Yeah, and we're gonna use them to get your mission back on track, your puppet Miguel owes us and you're going to tell him"

Sombra crossed her arms and gave him a sidelong look. "OK, Gabe," she said layering on the patience, "but first maybe you could explain why you are trying to make me look incompetent?"

Reaper nodded and addressed her with a contemptuous grimace. "OK, let me let you in on a couple of things, 1., you outsourced your spying to SIGINT because of your  _issues._ " Sombra scoffed at this remark and shook her head frustration. "2., you couldn't keep your cover, which was so flimsy by the way that a journalist was able to break it--a _journalist_ , Sombra, not a spy, not a hacker, a journalist--so you _intentionally_ blew it. 3., the signals people told me that you unintentionally leaked the location of the Talon base in the Azores. Want me to go on? I could talk about your sudden infatuation with certain celebrities, I could go on about the incompetence of your wannabe Castro friend sitting in the presidents office"

"No," she said softly uncrossing her arms.

"That's why Talon put me in control of your mission..." he said walking up to her. Sombra began to back up but her backside quickly met the wall in the confined dormitory space. "I vouched for you, they wanted to execute you, so you owe me..." he said pointing at her face.

"Heh." She smiled quickly smiled at his stupidity and lowered his hand. It was unbelievable to her how much she still wanted to fuck him but she felt she had to put him in his place. "Not so fast,  _pendejo._ " She plopped her hand on his chest and walked forward as she talked. "Using a media campaign to cover up that Talon is getting ready for war  _was my idea,_ the idea of using mass protests and popular movements to install Talon friendly governments, which by the way, is working very well, _was my idea_ , I did it first in _this_ country, I gave Talon its ideology and brought in groups in you assholes would have never talked to, and who the fuck cares that a few scattered Overwatch agents know where the base is? What are they going to do about it? They're coming here no matter what. So,  _fuck off._ " She pushed him back and cocked her head. "You really think you can control me? Try me, you honestly don't have the fucking wits"

As she glowered at Reaper she could see the tiniest bit of smoke rising from his joints and the corners of his eyes. She turned and sauntered over to him. "What are you mad, Gabe? Wanna knock me around?" she jeered as she gave him a light slap on his cheek, "jeeze, and you think my mood sucks..."

"I get it, you're a genius," he said grabbing her hand, "but you're still going to do what I say"

"Fucking make me," she replied hatefully.

In an instant, Gabriel engulfed her in his smokey form and they were almost violently making out. Sombra smiled involuntarily as she felt him press against her. "Finally," she said. Suddenly, as he began to tear at her clothes she stopped him. "Wait, I don't want to be interrupted..."

* * *

Widowmaker stepped into the Talon airbase's command room. She was looking for Reaper. She spotted several Talon mercenary officers standing huddled around a computer monitor in their sleek black uniforms and stepped behind them.

“Let me try the headphones, I want to know what the hell that sounds like,” said a female Talon officer with a vicious grin.

She was very game. The fellow manning the security station gave her the headphones with a somewhat grave look. She put the on headphones and leaned her neck in looking sidelong as she delicately pressed the speaker with her left hand. Her jaw dropped.

“Oh my God, is he hurting her? I mean, is she hurting him?” she said suddenly looking concerned. The officers shrugged. “God, what's that like?”

Sombra and Reaper had found their way to a solitary confinement cell for privacy without realizing or caring deeply that they could be monitored. Widowmaker walked over to the huddled mercenaries.

“That looks interesting,” noted Widowmaker coolly.

The officer took off the headphones blushing. Briefly, the sound of Sombra's coital wails escaped before the officer manning the station quickly turned down the volume. The red-handed officers awkwardly cleared their throats and stood at attention. They all knew that Reaper was Widowmaker's partner and close confidant.

Widowmaker narrowed her eyes at what was unfolding on the array of screens. Sombra and Gabriel were on display on multiple cameras from multiple angles in high fidelity. The various other monitors at the station showed their prisoners Jack, Ana and Reinhardt in waiting, oblivious to what was going on next to them in their sound proofed cells. The largest monitor was running the expose on Sombra's death in a somewhat ironic juxtaposition.

Sombra lay supine gripping Gabriel's back passionately with her claws as he fucked her on the cold floor. His hand was around her throat but he wasn't choking her, at least not enough to silence her. Otherworldly smoke rose out of the wounds Sombra was leaving on his back as Gabriel held her down, selfishly absorbed in the act of penetrating and physically dominating her. Sombra received every inch of him with a callous and self-destructive hedonism. Even Widowmaker was taken aback by the looks of utter hatred and indifference they cast each other. She was French, she had a sensibility about these things. Enemies should make love, become friends and forgive each other. This was obscene and nihilistic.

She sighed and looked off to the side. The officers shifted uncomfortably, waiting for her to tell them to turn it off.

“This is completely out of hand...” she muttered to no one in particular as she rubbed her forehead. “I'll talk to them,” she said then walked off.

“So... uhh, we can keep this on right?” asked an officer.

Widowmaker ignored them and shook her head as she headed towards the detention center. They turned back towards the monitors and resumed watching the show.

“That actually looks like a _great_ time,” said the female officer after she was out of ear shot.

The male officers threw each other nervous glances, she gave an evil smirk at the idea she had so easily intimidated them. A thought crossed her mind. _Blackmail_. She went to press the 'record' button but the man assigned to the station blocked her hand and shook his head fearfully.

“Stop me,” she threatened.

She pushed through and pressed. The red recording light blinked on. They were in the thick of it now.

* * *

Widowmaker stopped herself on the way to the detention center.

What was she doing? Why should she stop this? She hated it but she really shouldn't care. It was bullshit what they were doing, agents were supposed to keep their affairs secret and not let them interfere. But then there was this other feeling or lack of feeling. She had become lifeless, sexless, her desire had left her after her transformation, her only pleasure was in the efficient assassination of her targets and her subtle string pulling in Talon's internecine politics. But watching Sombra and Gabriel, Widowmaker felt unlovable: her slow heart barely beat at all, pumping poisonous blood filled with preservative chemicals when it did, her skin was cold and rubbery unpleasant to touch, her entire body had been turned into a weapon. Sure, she looked beautiful but it was a mere semblance of who she was.

“ _Pourquoi prendre la peine?_ ” she muttered as she stopped herself outside the entrance.

Widowmaker paused, she was confused because she _felt_ something. Sombra had finally gotten under her skin. A realization hit her in a way that had become alien to her, it stemmed from a feeling rather than thinking something through: she'd pretty much been in a sexless marriage with Reaper, they had been a power couple of sorts, their social alliance made them feared and respected. Sombra was making a fool of her.

She went to the barracks to take a warm shower, maybe then some life would creep back into her body.

Widowmaker stood naked in the empty barracks shower thinking to herself. There were curtain dividers between the heads, she had a little bit of privacy. She ran her fingers between her legs and gently passed her finger over her clit. She massaged gently for a moment with no expectations.

Nothing.

Widowmaker sighed. Better to just spend her time thinking about the mission. It needed to get back on track. Suddenly, she heard footsteps, the sounds of undressing and periodic sniffing.

" _Soy un mamarracho... demasiado goce_ "

 _Oh my God, its Sombra_ _._ Widowmaker turned off the water and grabbed her towel to leave as soon as she heard her pull aside the curtain and step into the shower.

"My favorite spider..." said Sombra melancholically, "you wouldn't believe where I've just been"

Widowmaker sighed, she'd timed her exit too perfectly to coincide with Sombra's entrance and she spotted her. It wouldn't have mattered if she was trying to kill her but now she was in a conversation.

Her lip twitched microscopically in disdain.

"Oh, you are alive, I heard on the news you were quite dead," she said collecting herself, "pity"

Sombra was tearful but wore a perversely satisfied grin, her face was still flush from her encounter. Widowmaker eyed her suspiciously. She had always hated Sombra but now her contempt had reached startling heights. Sombra looked full to her, she felt so empty.

"So, what's the next stage of the plan?" asked Widowmaker passive aggressively, "you should let me know before you completely fall apart"

Sombra sniffed and her grin turned into a full blown smile. "Aw, what's wrong,  _pobrecita_? " she asked flashing her vengeful eyes,"Don't like being out of the loop? Sad Gabriel won't talk to you anymore?"

Widowmaker recoiled her neck and raised her eyebrows in astonishment. Did she really just try to bully her? "Huh, you really are damaged. You may not have noticed but I'm not in competition with you," said Widowmaker calmly, "No,  _cherie_ , I am just bored. If anything, I am resentful of being brought on a mission with nothing to do when work is my only pleasure"

Widowmaker stepped closer and smiled giving Sombra a bizarre look of almost maternal affection. Sombra's crying suddenly stopped and she was taken aback.

"I am patient, Sombra, like a spider," said Widowmaker running her finger through Sombra's hair, she frowned and received it apprehensively, "but you don't want me to be bored because I will find something to do..." Sombra shook her hair to get out the odd sensation of Widowmaker's touch but Widowmaker deftly moved her hand to cup Sombra's cheek with fake tenderness. She froze as she felt the heat leave her body. "So please, have your fun and do feel better, _cherie._ You've been so miserable lately..."

Widowmaker gracefully removed her hand and stepped away to grab her things. Sombra rubbed her cheek to get the sensation back in as she watched Widowmaker with a "what the fuck?" expression. She'd simultaneously put the fear in her and made her feel like some naive teenager who'd just learned she could manipulate boys with sex. Although she'd taken Gabriel down a notch and he was no longer an otherworldly masked horror to her, Widowmaker was still herself: a cold and ruthlessly efficient assassin who effortlessly carried herself in every way with deadly poise and precision. In other words, Widowmaker scared the shit out of her.

Sombra's eyes shifted. "We're hitting the OSA meeting in Guatemala. Reaper is staying here to interrogate the prisoners," she said, "it'll be just you and me, _jefa_ "

"Wonderful," said Widowmaker in a curt tone as she stepped into the locker room to change.

Sombra watched Widowmaker take her towel down revealing her elaborate spider back tattoo and giving her pause. The pendulum had swung towards men for Sombra these days but Widowmaker's body was a work of art. Widowmaker's unusual skin covered the flawless taut body of a ballet dancer who moved with unearthly feminine grace. Sombra shook her head.  _Maybe one day,_ she thought.

"Ey, Widowmaker," called Sombra before stepping into the shower, "try getting fucked some time"

"I can see its working _so_ well for you," she called back, "but I'm afraid killing and 'fucking' are the same thing for me. I don't pretend like you do..."

 


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team catches on and makes a plan

_Watchpoint Gibraltar_

Winston lay back at his terminal watching the news, grumbling as he munched on a banana with his feet.

“Yesterday the world was shocked by the controversial expose 'Sombra Revealed,' which identified the hacker alias 'Sombra' to be a thus far unnamed woman of Mexican origin in her early thirties. More shocking still was the revelation that Jack Morrison and Ana Amari, key members of Overwatch, the organization established by the United Nations Global Defense Initiative Act in response to the Omnic Crisis and disbanded by the Petras act in early 2070, are still alive and played a key role in the demise of the infamous hacker. Currently they are being held in custody by Mexico's new left-wing government. Their status and whereabouts are unknown. Mexican officials have thus far declined to comment. Jack Morrison was the former commander of Overwatch and is suspected to have been involved in the bombing on Overwatch's Swiss HQ thirty years ago which resulted in the death of his rival Gabriel Reyes. Ana Amari, Morrison's former second-in-command, was thought to have been killed during a botched hostage rescue operation...”

“Hmmph, no word of their secret identities,” said Winston to himself, “I suppose that's good news”

“Winston, Agent Lena Oxton has arrived,” noted Athena.

“What is the status of the other agents?”

“Agent Zhou has been delayed, she's been taken in by Chinese authorities for questioning”

“That's not good...”

“Dr. Ziegler is on schedule as is Agent Lindholm, they will arrive within the hour,” said Athena, “I believe you also requested transport for Fareeha Amari? She is on time as well. I think the new company will be good for your stress. I believe Commander Morrison's presence was sometimes onerous”

“Well, I certainly had to practice managing my temper...”

“Winston!” called out Lena from below the command copula. Winston raised his head, in excitement. He heard her through the broken glass which had yet to be repaired since Talon's last raid and rushed down. “Hiya, big guy!” she said embracing him, “I missed ya”

Winston gave a goofy smile as he returned the quirky diminutive lesbian's hug. It was impossible but he crushed on her.

“Sorry, this wasn't under more optimal circumstances...”

Lena giggled at his social awkwardness. Winston seemed to melt away some of her anxiety about all this.

“Well, that's not your fault, big fella,” replied Lena, “Jack's just an old duffer who can't leave well enough alone”

“But not Ana”

Lena laughed.

“That old bird would follow him off the edge of the earth, easy peasy,” noted Lena, “same with Reinhardt”

Winston scratched his chin. Her analysis seemed accurate.

“So what's the damage, huh?” she asked, putting her hand on her hip.

“I'm afraid its what you described...”

They went upstairs and flipped through various international news stations.

“...The documentary has sparked renewed interest and attention in the defunct organization... Speculation has erupted about Jack Morrison's relationship to a string of attack on former Overwatch facilities... Renewed calls for investigations into the activity of former Overwatch agents... Investigations are underway in regards to the authenticity of the 'Sombra Leak,' a trove of documents which were leaked before the premiere of the 'Sombra Revealed' expose which include details regarding the illegal activity of former Overwatch agents...”

“Call me loony, but this whole Sombra fiasco seems to be more about us than her,” noted Lena as the channels flipped by.

“Fareeha Amari, Ana Amari's daughter, had this to say-”

The footage showed Pharah covering her face and walking briskly as a female reporter harassed her. This must have been this morning while she was on her way to her Orca extraction point.

“Oi, I recognize that reporter,” said Lena leaning in and tapping on her face with the back of her finger, “that's Emma Blackwood, the woman from the Sombra documentary...”

“Fareeha, quick question”

“Its Pharah,” she snapped back.

“Pharah, did you know your mother was alive? How did you feel when you learned the news?”

“No comment”

“Does this give you hope for the discovery of your father? What would he think?”

“My fath-, what?” said Pharah infuriated, “no comment”

Pharah began to walk faster, the reporter chased her with the microphone.

“Fareeha, do you support your mother's actions?”

Pharah stopped and looked at the ground while she thought of what to say. “No, I love my mother but I don't think justice should ever be taken into ones own hands,” she said and continued walking.

“Can you comment on the existence of a reconstituted Overwatch? Are you a member?”

“No, please leave me alone!” shouted Pharah becoming sad and irritated.

“Respond to allegations that your mother was a terrorist operating under the alias 'Shrike' and her use of biotics in Overwatch related war crimes”

Pharah's expression turned to complete outrage. The svelte reporter grinned when she saw she'd gotten a rise out of her.

“Get away from me!” cried Pharah pushing the camera away.

The reporter quickly fixed her hair after the scuffle and turned to face the camera. “As the athletic aeronaut and litigious warbird of the skies shows judicious levity when it comes to family-” she said, barely containing her amusement as Pharah legged it in the background, “-we can all ask, where is the justice now? Certainly not raining from above, more like rotting in a shame landfill below. Back to you, Chris”

“She does a crack job at being a complete tosser _,_ ” muttered Lena, “look at her, she's chuffed to bits...”

“Winston!” called Pharah from below.

“Pharah, we're up here, luv!” called Lena back, “just saw your interview, luv. Its a bonkers out there”

“I don't want to talk about it,” said Pharah taking off her aviator sunglasses, "when is everyone getting here?"

Winston pushed up his glasses. “They'll all be arriving shortly...”

"Its OK, luv. You should see mine, I told the maggots to piss off"

Pharah stared at the news repeating the footage of her pushing the camera away. She'd never experienced this kind of scrutiny from the press before.

“Um, Winston? Best turn that off for now, I think...” said Lena trying to be attentive to her friend. “Pharah, dear, its OK. She's family to us too. We'll get them back”

Angela stepped in wordlessly as Pharah rubbed her eyes to hide her tears. The agents didn't greet her on account of bad blood from her role in the demise of their organization all those years ago. Pharah caught her out of the corner of her eyes and suddenly couldn't control her tears. She threw herself on Angela's shoulder and began to cry.

The agents looked away in silence.

“I'm sorry, everyone,” she said as she contained herself, “Jack and Reinhardt are the closest things I've had to dads and my mother...”

She went quiet.

“Ya hear tha' news?” shouted Torbjorn, interrupting as he stomped in, “agh, it makes me so angry the way they treat people they used ta' call 'heroes.' Reminds me of the worst a' it back in the day.” He clapped his hands together and grinned as his eyes panned the room. “So, this is the group, huh? How's it feel ta' be called terrorists, just like old times, eh?"

The room seemed to lighten up from his boisterous attitude towards all this. Pharah smiled and for a moment felt secure. Here, she was surrounded by friends.

Torbjorn put his hands on his hips. "Right, let's get ta' work...”

* * *

The team moved to the Watchpoint's briefing room. Winston displayed a world map littered with flashing red dots, video modals showing news footage hovered near the larger ones.

“This is more than just what's happening in Mexico with Jack, Ana, and Reinhardt,” said Winston, “this is a full scale offensive. Athena?”

“Analysis of world news and opinion, three critical items: 1. The release of the Sombra documentary coincides with a general upward trend in Talon media activity, 2. Since the release of the film, there has been a spike in military activity by Talon sponsored nations and terrorist organizations with little attention from international news outlets, 3. Public opinion of international cooperation in 'Overwatch' styled diplomatic and counter-terrorism agreements is at an all time low”

“So the bastards won't do what they have to ta' fight Talon and would rather just not pay attention,” muttered Torbjorn disdainfully, “typical”

“It looks like Talon is positioning itself for war. What can we possibly do?” asked Angela.

“I don't know,” noted Winston, “they've never done anything on this scale before”

Pharah pounded her fist on the table. “Lets focus, how will this help rescue my mother?”

“Pharah, dear,” spoke Angela patiently, a little frazzled by her sudden violence, “we need to know what we are getting into...” She cleared her throat. “It looks like Talon is masterminding these media scandals as a smoke screen-”

“I'd like to tell them to just belt up,” cursed Lena.

Angela maintained her professionalism and ignored her.

“Please, let me speak. Perhaps we can use this to our advantage and throw the spot light back on Talon, yes?” offered Angela. "Although, we'd all have to maintain our composure...” she said deliberately glancing at Lena and Pharah. Pharah exhaled and put her hands behind her head. “The point is, this is probably all lies, everything. There is no reason to believe this Sombra is dead, as candid as the documentary is. It's likely Jack was the victim of her manipulations”

“Ya' think? I mean, this is a big scale cock up, Angela,” Lena burst out, “how'd she get the drop on Jack? How do we know she's not listening right now?”

The agents shifted uncomfortably.

“I suspect she used a hacked phone that Jack returned to the base, but I assure you I used every precaution,” assured Winston, “however, given Sombra's level of sophistication it _is_ possible but so far Athena has detected nothing”

“Yoohoo, she's just a computer, hows she gonna know she's infected? Its like if a nutter can know he's a nutter,” said Lena putting her feet up on the table, “and then, even if they manage, maybe they are too much of a nutter to do anything about it. I know, I been there”

Torbjorn nodded in ardent agreement. 

Athena was silent as her logo span imperiously on the monitor, apparently unperturbed by the conversation and feeling no need to intervene or reassure.

Angela touched the nape of her neck as she reckoned with what Lena was saying. "Huh," she uttered, thinking partially out loud, _h_ _ow lucid._

“So where's the bloody thing now, the phone I mean?”

Winston shrugged.

“Well, where'd he get it from?”

“Lena, I don't understand...” said Pharah.

“Let's see where she's going with this,” said Angela narrowing her eyes.

“Well, hey, it's not brill but say we got another hacked device. Winston mucks with it so we know where Sombra is, then we do what Jack did but better”

The agents eyed each other with concerned faces. That wasn't really Tracer's plan was it?

“Look, its like a game. Jack thought she didn't know that he tracked her. We know that she knows. We know that she knows that we know. It's like playing poker with your hand out,” said Lena folding her arms, satisfied with her explanation.

Pharah blinked.

“Lena I-,” she started to say but Angela interrupted, being sure Pharah was going to say she didn't understand.

“Brilliant, I would even say this was Sombra's strategy all along. She knows she can't hide her identity, that's why she is leaking everything,” said Angela, suddenly sounding more decisively German, “And, yes, Winston, given Sombra's capabilities, I would say that we must all act as if she already knows what we are going to do...”

“Angela-,” whispered Pharah sounding somewhat distraught.

“I can explain after,” she said quickly.

Winston cleared his throat. “In all seriousness, and if you all don't mind me saying, I don't think it matters, there is only one move we can make. We have to rescue Jack and the team”

“Agreed,” said Pharah.

A grin grew on Angela's face. “Not so fast,” said Dr. Ziegler. “So, what if we don't know what we know?”

Lena made a cockeyed expression and exhaled in exasperation.

“Now ya lost me doctor,” said Torbjorn.

Angela stood and began to pace as she talked. “We can only act on what she assumes we know... We would be foolish not to unless we want to step into an obvious trap. Maybe she wants us to overestimate her abilities and thereby make a poor move, seemingly the only move available. Think about it, not following this line of reasoning at all, as if we did not even consider what she knows, is the same as assuming she has the knowledge of God. How philosophical...”

“But we don't know that-” noted Lena.

“Precisely,” Angela said with sudden intensity.

“Heh heh, you're scaring me doc,” laughed Lena nervously.

“But what if we did know, and in this case we do, we know that we don't, how to hide our knowledge in plain sight? We can no longer pretend we don't know, we know what we know. So what do we do?”

The room was silent.

“Well?”

“We... underestimate her?” offered Lena tentatively.

“And?” asked Angela with maniacal excitement.

“Act on what we don't know, then we will know that we know that she knows. Which means-”

“We go to Lucio and Hana. Get a hacked device and let it compromise our system,” grumbled Torbjorn, “I don't like it”

“I agree. That is most unadvisable,” warned Athena.

“Huh, now she speaks,” muttered Torbjorn distrustfully crossing his arms.

Winston adjusted his glasses and stared at the Athena terminal apprehensively. What if Sombra really was watching?

“But that's what I just said,” protested Lena.

“Right, but with the benefit of knowing Sombra will be hunting us,” said Torbjorn, “ah, so a bit more like chess than poker, sorry Lena”

“Of course, we don't know that...” chimed Winston.

Angela smiled, now they were catching on.

“Then, only then, are we in Lena's game,” said Angela forebodingly, “right now we are at an unfair disadvantage. We didn't even know we were playing. And this is not Sombra's only game. Given Talon's newfound affinity for hype and mass media, we must all be extremely careful. We're stepping into a trap but we shouldn't allow ourselves to give them the spectacle they want. We all saw what happened to Jack”

Collectively they pictured Jack in a cold lightless cell awaiting extradition or worse as an army of hostile reporters dug up and scrutinized every detail of his life. As Jack would say, they all had it coming.

“And given Talon's current posture towards war, we should do everything we can to avoid an international conflict,” added Winston.

The agents grimly agreed and were silent.

"Right, enough glum and fancy talk, I'm ready for action," said Torbjorn, finally breaking the silence, "lets get to nuts and bolts shall we?"


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Junkrat and Roadhog enter the story, Junkrat and Lena's "oi's" are impeccable. Angela spars with a certain reporter. Sombra plays catch up after indulging a bit too much. Jack overhears some interesting shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote Junkrat and Roadhog a bit like Saturday morning cartoon characters. Also I went back to writing this out on my iPhone because it makes things more fast and fluid.

_Rio de Janiero_

Lucio lay comfortably on his couch with Hana splayed across his chest. Things were so much more peaceful knowing that Sombra was no longer watching and listening. He ran his hand over her hair, she'd fallen asleep.

Suddenly, his door alarm rang and the silence was ruined. Someone was trying to get it in or talk to him. Either way it was a bother.

"I need to get rid of this damn thing and move to a place with a doorman," muttered Lucio shifting to get Hana up.

Hana slowly awakened. Briefly, he coordinated with her so he could get up in a way where she could stay resting on the couch. He rubbed his eyes as he stepped to the obnoxious device that had awoken him.

"Yello?" he asked patiently.

"Um, whoa, never talked to a pop star," fumbled Lena, "It's Tracer, luv. You know, from Overwatch. Could ya' let me in, luv?"

Hana yawned and came to. "Holy shit, is that Tracer? I used to read comic books about her!"

She scrambled to the intercom. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, come in!"

"There in a jiff!"

Rightly so, Tracer was up the stairs in a flash having abused her chronal accelerator. There was rapid knock. Lucio opened the door.

"Heh heh," giggled Lena nervously, "hiya! Just thought I-"

"Tracer!" said Hana bounding over to her and hugging her with her entire body like an older sister.

"Well!" she said returning hug, "I'm glad someone likes me. Thanks to your friend, Sombra, everyone else's been downright beastly"

Hana looked up at her. "I thought you'd be taller..."

"She's even causing trouble beyond the grave, huh?" said Lucio stepping over to greet Tracer, "that's just like her"

He didn't know the half of it. Angela had gone nuts, forbidding them from leaving the base and regulating their behavior to create a strange performance that would make it ambiguous to Sombra as to whether or not they knew they were being spied on. It created a bizarre atmosphere of paranoia where every conversation was a game of 20 questions that they were pretending not to play and every answer was "maybe." Angela, Winston and Torbjorn had planned their next moves completely in the open yet to anyone listening it appeared to be shouting match where no one could agree on anything. To Lena, Sombra had made the base a complete loony bin and she was glad to be out of it. Poor Pharah had given up trying to understand and stayed mostly silent.

Lena and Lucio two sort of sized each other up as two attractive people, trying to decide whether to hug or shake.

"Hey, Tracer," he said going for the hug after all.

“Heya Lucio, love your, um, music,” she replied.

Lena made it quick, she'd gotten an odd sense from him. She shook it off and cleared her throat to get down to business.

"Well, I'm not sure if you've heard about Jack. But he's in a spot of trouble"

"Yeah, I heard on the news. What's going to happen to him?" asked Lucio.

"No word yet, luv, but we thought you might help"

"Help how?"

 _Well, thats the bugger of it,_ she thought. Angela told her not to mention whether they knew Sombra was dead or alive. Tracer blew some hair out of her face in annoyance as she tried to pick her words... 

* * *

"Oi, pig brains, look over 'ere," said Junkrat peeking over his shades at their target's balcony, "thought I saw something move in our bloke's apartment"

Roadhog lifted his head and glared across his monstrous belly at Junkrat from his sagging deck chair. "Mmuuugh," he noted.

"Wha? Smarter 'an dogs? If they're so smart why do they taste so good? Ever think a' that, mate?"

Roadhog shook his head in exasperation as Junkrat sat up from his deck chair and rummaged through his disordered junk for a pair of binoculars. He pulled them out victoriously and peered through.

"Well, looky 'ere, we got ourselves a visita," said Junkrat zooming in on Lena through Lucio's massive windows. "Oooh, she's easy on the eyes. I love a girl with a short haircut. Loads a' fun, if you catch my meaning. You think she's one a' them Overwatch sheilas?"

Roadhog got up from under the shade of his deck chair's attachable umbrella and yoinked the binoculars out of his hand.

"Careful ya donger, those are exy!"

Roadhog grunted and surveyed the woman then lowered the binoculars and took out his phone, thumbing it delicately with his massive fingers. Junkrat peeked over and saw he was poking through Google search results of "Overwatch agents."

"Google? Not very professional, mate"

"Mmuugh"

"You got a point, there big guy. Woulda been nice if Talon had helped us out with a database or something," said Junkrat, "I sure hope its nothin', this' been the easiest job in the world, just watchin' some rich drongo's apartment"

Junkrat propped his peg leg up on an air duct Captain Morgan style and squinted towards the building.

"Whaddaya think, Roady, would a sheila like that go for me?" 

Roadhog pushed his phone in Junkrat's face with a news article: "ex-Overwatch luminary comes out of closet, is living happily with girlfriend in London." Junkrat's jaw dropped.

"Bomb 'er"

* * *

"Lucio, Hana, I don't know how to ask but…"

She was interrupted by a seismic explosion.

_KABOOM!_

Lena reflexively used her chronal accelerator. Time slowed to a crawl and the explosion became a low warblely rumble. She could feel the support of the building just about to give way as she witnessed the start of Hana and Lucio's expressions of surprise and terror in extreme slow motion. There was no way out but through. Lena took both of them in her arms, her accelerated movement giving her increased strength, and sprinted at impossible speeds towards the balcony, smashing through the window. Lena watched Lucio and Hana's faces twist in surprise from the impact of the accelerated woman and the sudden sensation of moving at what felt like the speed of light. She picked up momentum and prepared to jump as she felt the axis of the ground beneath her tilt. Lena eyed her options, only one place to go. Lena pushed off as hard as she could making her suicidal leap for the roof of a nearby building. She gauged her momentum, the leap felt weak. _Oh bloody hell_ , she thought as she reached the top of her arc, _I'm not going to make it_.

Lucio, for a spit second wasn't sure where he was, he knew he had just been talking to Tracer but... was that his audio gun floating in front of his face? He reached out grabbed it curiously. Wait a second, was he airborne?

_KABOOM!_

Lena's blink ended mid-air between the buildings as a second massive explosion went off. All three screamed as they sailed through the air at high velocity.

"AAAAAAAHHHH!! WHAT THE FUCK!? AHHHHHH!!" shouted Lucio at full strength trying to grab on to something with his free hand.

He caught Lena and they hugged each other in terror as Hana trailed slightly behind flailing her arms as she tried to grab them. They impacted with a sickening thud on a nearby rooftop.

Hana landed on a Craig's List find rooftop couch flipping it on its back on impact. She got up coughing and cursing in Korean when she noticed Lucio clinging to Lena for dear life.

"Lucio! Um, Lucio, luv? It's alright, we made it!" said Lena patting him on his back, trying to get him to remove his death grip.

Slowly, he unfurled himself.

"Haha! Alright!" cheered Lucio once he realized he had all his limbs.

"Yeah, good thing you landed on top of me and I had my jacket or our skin would be all over this rooftop," said Lena, "um, would you mind gettin' off me, luv?"

"Sure..." he said picking himself up.

Hana wretched in the background.

"Hana, you OK?" said Lucio running up to hug her.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said throwing his hands off. "I landed on someone's stupid musty old couch and got a face full of mold." She hacked. "Ugh, I'm gonna be sick for a week"

"Oi, you see that?! She's a crafty an' lesbionic, she dun' teleported ova' there!" shouted Junkrat frantically pointing, "We gotta go! We got a job ta do!"

Roadhog collapsed the umbrella and packed up his rooftop picnic as Junkrat unpacked his grenade launcher. Suddenly, a security guard poked his head out the stair well.

"Hey! Stop right there! You two aren't supposed to be up here!"

"Leg it!"

They blew past the guard and huddled down the stairs at high speed.

Lena scratched the back of her head. It was now or never. Angela and Winston had just wanted a bugged piece of hardware but now there was really no choice but to bring them with her.

"So, I'm not sure this is a great time but seeing as how you all are homeless..."

"He's homeless," corrected Hana.

"Right, maybe you can stay with Overwatch and work with us, since you're wrapped up in this Sombra business too"

"I dunno, Tracer... that building was full of people, we gotta help them," said Lucio.

"Lucio, luv. I don't know if you've got a choice, you and Hana aren't safe here, that bomb was meant for you," pleaded Lena, "if they were sent by Sombra then there might be more Talon mercenaries coming"

"Let's go, Lucio!" said Hana taking his hand and a more direct approach, "He's going, Lena. I'm not sticking around for more"

They rushed off of the roof and down the stairs to witness Roadhog and Junkrat in the lobby acting a fool.

"I told ya you weren't gonna fit, but, no, you said you started your diet, look where ya got us now, bacon brain!" said Junkrat trying to pull Roadhog through the revolving door by his massive hand.

Roadhog punched his other hand through the glass and pointed at the trio. "Mmmuugh"

"Eh, what?" said Junkrat with a stupid look. Roadhog physically turned his head to put them in his line of sight. "Oi, you lot! Hold it right there!"

"You two! I thought I recognized your handy work," said Tracer as she screeched to a halt.

"She knows us, Roady! We're famous!" said Junkrat as Roadhog broke free and walked out wearing the entire revolving door frame. "What didn't like the fireworks? The trick is to look at 'em real close," he said drawing his launcher.

Tracer drew her pistols. "I'll handle this"

"No, they blew up my stuff," said Hana drawing her pistol, "I'm gonna make them pay"

Lucio cringed and clutched his audio gun. He freaking hated violence but he could tell just by looking at the Junkers that they were nothing but chock-full of it, there was no choice.

Junkrat cackled. "Tough talk from a little girl, whaddaya gonna do with a toy gun?"

Hana fired. The laser shot went just barely over Junkrat's head, lighting his hair on fire.

"Mmuugh," observed Roadhog.

Junkrat's eye twitched as he felt the top of his head. "No one lights me own hair on fire unless it's me!" he shouted, "do 'em!"

Roadhog drew his shotgun and began messily unloading ammunition into the lobby. Junkrat rattled off his poorly aimed and conceived shots in kind. The trio split dodging the uncoordinated fire and explosions.

"They'll shred us to pieces!" shouted Hana from behind a pillar.

"Don't worry, their aim's not much, you just have to look out for-"

Lena was cut off as a hook whipped out and took off the middle section of the pillar Lena was using for cover almost taking her with it.

"-that bloody hook!"

Hana broke cover and pumped several shots into Roadhog but it just seemed to make him mad. Hana wailed in surprise and quickly took cover.

"Lena, what's our plan?" shouted Lucio from behind a couch as he noticed a grenade with a manic smiley face land next to him. He quickly picked it up and tossed it back.

"I've got an Orca nearby, we need to get a car!"

"I can take my-." Hana wretched. "I can take my mech, I just need to get outside!"

Lucio nodded. "I'll cover you"

"I'll create a diversion," shouted Lena.

She blinked and reappeared on top of Roadhog sitting crosslegged.

"Yoohoo!" she said then whistled.

"Oi, Roady, you got a gay Klingon, hold still"

"Mmuugh!" said Roadhog in surprise.

Junkrat aimed and fired at Tracer but Roadhog quickly pushed his launcher down and the grenade ricocheted off Roadhog's kneecap. The massive man clutched his knee and hopped in pain.

"Mmuugh!"

"Insane? Idiot? Whaddayou mean? I'm trying to help!"

Tracer used the chaos to pull Roadhog's gas mask over his eyes, blinding him. She then blink next to Junkrat.

"Hiya!" she said leaning on his shoulder. She sniffed him. "God you smell..."

"Why you-!" he leaped back and lobbed out a concussion mine. Lena blinked behind a flailing Roadhog and gave him a light push, just about into the mine.

_Boom!_

"Sorry mate!" said Junkrat wincing as Roadhog grabbed him with the intent of unscrewing his head. "Accident, I swear!"

"Mmmrrr..." menaced Roadhog.

Suddenly, he stopped. Something was off.

"Oi! Where'd she go? Where'd they all go?" they looked around the war torn lobby.

Suddenly, they heard the sound of stomping robot feet. Roadhog dropped Junkrat as they were covered by the shadow of a fairly imposing mecha. They turned and found themselves face to face with Hana and a pair of fusion blasters.

"Its pink," muttered Junkrat.

"Mmmuugh," Roadhog agreed.

Hana narrowed her eyes.

"You guys tried to blow me up..."

Junkrat chuckled nervously.

"Who us? Awful sorry, heh heh, won't happen again," he stammered.

"Get out of my sight before I throw you to the cops..."

Junkrat laughed hysterically. "What? Really? Just letting us go?"

"Mmmugh"

"Shut up, ya nonger, don't make 'em change their minds," he hissed.

"Yeah, now clear out before I decide to just blast you..."

Roadhog and Junkrat exchanged nervous glances before collecting their nefarious implements. Roadhog delicately removed the revolving door frame from his body and, with equal care, placed the misshapen frame back in its enclosure. The pair slowly backed out as sirens began to approach.

"Scram!" shouted Hana, shifting her mech into a fighting stance.

They turned tail and skedaddled.

"Yeah, clear off ya gormless twits!" shouted Lena after them. Lena stepped over to Hana once they'd cleared. "Hana, luv, why didn't you just paste the bastards?"

She exhaled as if letting off a massive load of stress. "The guns wouldn't fire!" she wailed.

"What? Can this thing get us to the Orca?"

"I dunno, its acting all weird!"

"Well, what's wrong with it?" asked Lena turning a little frantic.

"Um," said Lucio timidly, "Sombra hacked it, long time ago"

"I knew that bitch messed with my baby!" Hana cursed rolling her eyes.

"Look, it is what it is, I say we take a chance"

Hana laughed somewhat darkly. "OK, your choice. Hang on tight," she said lowering the mech so they could grab on. 

"Umm," swallowed Lena as she looked at Lucio. He tensed and gestured to the robot. No choice but to go.

* * *

Junkrat and Roadhog hustled with their belongings towards their car, a modified green '69 Revell Super Safari dune buggy.

"There's few things I hate more an' being the object of physical comedy..." mumbled Junkrat.

As they piled in their belongings, they were suddenly interrupted by a bipedal pink absurdity passing overhead.

"Oi, would you look at that..." mused Junkrat.

"Mmuugh" 

Junkrat's eyes narrowed as he watched Hana's mech flying in a way that was clearly unsettling to its passengers indicated mostly by their arguing and clinging on for dear life. The mech jerked and wobbled unsteadily but flew in a determined manner towards its destination.

"Roady, does that thing look like it works good to you?"

"Mmuugh!" said Roadhog raising his hand to block the sun.

"Looks like we're not outgunned after all, let's finish the job"

They piled into the dune buggy and made off after the flying pink object.

"Bad news," shouted Lena, "our friends are back"

"Shit!" shouted Lucio.

"Oi, ya think?" shouted Lena back as she drew her gun.

She started peppering the dune buggy with plasma fire.

Junkrat ducked behind the steering wheel. A plasma bolt nicked him in the shoulder.

"Ow, oo-, hot!" he said patting his skin. Roadhog opened his canteen and poured some curious Junker healing potion on it. "Thanks mate, I owe ya. Gimme a scull a' that later"

"Mmuugh"

He gunned the accelerator of the old buggy pushing its ancient combustion engine to its limit. Slowly he pulled ahead of the pink mech.

"Look at em' an' their fancy 'energy weapons,' give em' a blast from the past would ya'?"

Roadhog reached in the back seat and pulled out a funnel and crank unceremoniously slamming them on to his shot gun. With a second motion, he took a handful of nuts, bolts, broken beer bottles, and assorted junk from his satchel and jammed it into the funnel.

"Fire at will, commander! I've always wanted to say that..."

The sky filled with junk and shrapnel. Half a Jack Daniels wrapper slapped on Hana's windshield, followed by a clump of shoe strings, buttons, a couple quid worth of Australian loose change, a broken dildo, various electronic components, a bath toy, legos. A long and varied string of Korean curse words emanated from the cockpit as Hana's knuckles were bloodied by hordes of oncoming junk.

"Why did they put the fucking joysticks on the outside?!" she railed.

Lena and Hana weren't fairing any better as they were scraped by unpleasant shards of metal and glass.

"Hana!" shouted Lucio, "Hana! Listen!"

"What?!" she shouted impatiently.

"I've got a plan, pull in front and get me as close as you can"

"What?!" she repeated.

"You heard me, I said closer! Get me as close as you can so I can engage at point blank range"

"What are you doing, Lucio?" said Lena

"Don't worry, I've got this"

The compromised mech lowered its altitude and started to pull ahead of the buggy as Roadhog prepared his second salvo.

"I think they're 'ungry for more!" Junkrat cackled as he leaned in on the steering wheel maniacally.

Muffled chuckles of hearty agreement came from behind Roadhog's mask.

Roadhog was about to start his fusillade when Hana pulled directly ahead. Suddenly, Junkrat's stomach sank as his eyes zeroed in on Lucio's peculiar gun. He had no idea what the gun did but Lucio's cocky smile seemed to indicate that they were screwed. Junkrat swallowed.

"Boop!" said Lucio as he fired.

The buggy was blown off its front wheels. Junkrat choked when they impacted with the road causing the car to turn on its side and veer into a ditch. 

"Haha! That got 'em!" cheered Lucio.

They touched down unsteadily in front of the Overwatch Orca. Some local villagers had taken some interest but quickly huddled away when they saw Hana's mech stomp towards it.

"Hey, we did it!" said Lucio hugging Lena.

"Huh!" said Lena receiving the hug a little awkwardly, "yeah, I suppose we did!"

Lucio went to hug Hana as she climbed out of the mech but she held up her bloodied hands.

"Lucio," said Hana darkly, "come here"

"What is it, baby?" he asked as she brought him near some foliage for privacy.

"Two things. 1., you know she's gay right?"

"Um"

He hadn't really considered trying to hit on Lena but almost like clockwork a piece of shit part of Lucio's brain thought, _that doesn't matter, Sombra was gay_.

"2., she has a girlfriend"

The piece of shit part of Lucio's brain thought, _that doesn't matter, plenty of girls cheat for me_.

"3"

"You said-"

"3," she continued, "I'm your God damned fiancée and if you don't turn that audio gun on me and fix my hands and act like we're God damned engaged the whole thing is off"

"OK, I got it," he said with a flat frown pointing his audio gun at her hands, "just being friendly"

"Um guys?" called Lena as the dropship's cargo bay door opened, "we gotta go!"

He stepped out with Hana and she quickly manned her mech, stomping it inside the aircraft. Lucio stepped inside. The ship was a little messy, well loved, perhaps. A poster of Hana hang above a corner couch. Lena helped Hana strap her mech down as the bay door rose and the engines fired up. Lucio went over to help but they waved him back and he instead buckled himself in. The girls finished and strapped in.

Lucio thought to himself as he looked at Lena, _Oh my God, I'm joining Overwatch_. Then he considered what Hana said and it dawned on him that he might have a thing for queer girls. Then the thought hit him that he might just be thinking about that to distract himself from the fact that his house had been demolished. Yeah, that was pretty interesting. Lena kind of awkwardly saluted in a way she did with fans who didn't know how to handle themselves around her. Lucio shook to. And what about Hana? She was shaking her head at him. _Oh God..._

* * *

"Welp, pork pie, we fucked up," groaned Junkrat as he crawled out from under the dune buggy.

"Mmuugh," said Roadhog pushing the dune buggy carcass off and cracking his back.

"An' now we gotta tell Sombra we fucked up..." he said kicking the wreckage with his good foot.

"Mmuuugh"

"I know, it was a lotta money," he complained, "maybe we can get lucky with some scratch tickets so we can make our way outta here..."

Roadhog face palmed. Suddenly, Junkrat's "business" cellphone rang an 8-bit version of the Australian national anthem.

"Crickey, its 'er!" shouted Junkrat nervously when he looked at his phone, "you're doing the talking, mate!" 

"Mmugh!" exclaimed Roadhog in offense as he took the phone.

Sombra appeared on the phone looking sullen as usual. " _Amigos_ , what's your status?"

"Mmuugh..."

"You what?" said Sombra, blinking her smokey eyes incredulously.

"Mmuuugh," explained Roadhog adding a shake, "mmmmm"

Her eyes narrowed as she comprehended what took place. "OK, teleportation... flying pink robot..."

"How can she... under...?" bumbled Junkrat in bewilderment.

"So, they got away with Tracer. I get the picture," said Sombra leaning back and resting her chin on her knuckles. "OK, you want to know what I think? Lean close." The pair leaned in. "Closer... Closer... you too Roadhog. I want to see your eyes when I talk to you. That's right..."

Junkrat winced as he leaned in, expecting to be chewed out at any moment. Suddenly, the screen blinked out and they heard the fizzle of electronic components before the device's screen rudely exploded in their faces.

"Well, that's bloody nice, those things are expensive!"

Roadhog's cellphone started ringing. It was Sombra.

"She'll just do it again mate..." Junkrat warned.

"Mmuugh"

"Fine, don't say I didn't warn ya"

Roadhog received the call.

"Nice job ya hooligan, coulda blinded me! I can get a peg for me other leg an' a peg for me arm but not a peg for me eyes!"

"Well, since you're not blind," she said sounding somewhat bored and frustrated, "I'm not terminating your contract. I'm sending a Talon transport to pick you up. You'll meet me here, in person, for your orders"

And she was gone.

"We're really in for it now, pork chop. I hate spies and spooks, an' now we gotta go to place that's crawlin' with em'..."

 

* * *

 

_Watchpoint Gibraltar_

"Keep scannin' that computer, I don't trust her," said Torbjorn patting Winston on the back, "As much as I enjoyed the doctor's word games, we've got ta' know if we've gotta bug... n' keep this mess grounded in reality"

"I thoroughly agree"

Torbjorn turned to a monitor displaying Dr. Ziegler at a press conference she'd hosted in Zurich.

"Just look at 'er. She's gotta weird head on 'er shoulders," muttered Torbjorn, "I never woulda suspected it. Voluntarily goin' to the press, she's a masochist..."

They watched the shark fest unfold on Athena's monitor.  A svelte female reporter with short jet black straight hair pushed her way to the front. 

It was Emma Blackwood.

"Dr. Ziegler, respond to allegations that you are using your appointment in the International Civil Service Commission to promote Overwatch related activity," she spoke in her saucy received pronunciation English.

"If you mean counter-terrorism, yes, by doing everything we can to promote aid projects that lower youth unemployment, reduce social instability, and prevent extremism. Next question"

"Dr. Ziegler, can you comment on your recent visits to Overwatch facilities?"

"My partner is an employee of Helix Security, which, as you know, has taken over the operation of former Overwatch facilities. Next question"

Emma blinked, Angela was responding too quickly to her questions with her canned answers. Other reporters started to crowd her out. She needed a something that would get her goat.

"What about the revelation that your ex-husband is alive and that you provided him with medical treatment while he was engaged in the killing of left-wing activists in Mexico," she asked.

The rabble hushed. Emma flashed Angela her dastardly eyes.

"These allegations are completely unfounded-"

"Can you comment on the surgery you performed on members of the Japanese Shimada syndicate implanting illegal experimental nano-technology?"

Angela's eyes widened with outrage before she calmed herself.

"And what do you want to prove with these allegations? Perhaps the world would like to know who is signing your paycheck, Ms. Blackwood?"

"Answer the question, if you please, Dr. Ziegler," said Emma with her trademark eyebrow raise, "the free press won't be intimidated by you"

Angela cleared her throat and gestured to Emma from the podium.

"Members of the press, take a close look, this woman is a Talon operative trying to destroy my credibility. Now can I get a question from a _real_ news group?" said Angela derisively, "yes, you, Atlas News..."

"Why I never!" She grabbed her camera man and stormed off to the corner. "We can edit that bit out right?" she asked under her breath.

"We're rolling live," hissed the camera man.

"Oh,  _shit,_ " she swore before regaining her composure. "As the good doctor sprawls on the pin, venomous and unfounded accusations sprawl out like... like..." she shook her head as she searched for words, "like a patient etherized on the table?" She turned and groaned 'ugh!' before turning back. "Its back to you, Chris." As the scene transitioned to the dramatic news credits she could be heard saying, "what the fuck, am I bloody T.S. Eliot?"

"Haha!" laughed Torbjorn, "that got 'er! Wonder how she knew..."

 

* * *

 

_Talon blacksite, Outside Mexico City_

Sombra she sat moodily in the command room nonchalantly tapping on her haptic keyboard as she watched Miguel's statement on a large monitor.

“I understand that the international community is eagerly awaiting our compliance in extraditing the criminals Jack Morrison and Ana Amari to their respective countries and would like to see Reinhardt Wilhelm returned to Germany, pending charges. However, our cooperation in these proceedings will largely be determined by the international community itself in accepting the legitimacy of our country...”

The day was not going well. Junkrat and Roadhog were a disappointing failure and Emma Blackwood had fucked up in front of the press. Sombra wasn't used to being in charge of people and was a deeply reactionary and impatient leader, she wasn't sure whether to discipline or execute them. Reaper would definitely try to use this to gain authority over her.

Gabriel, he was so much more threatening and seductive the less he talked...

A spook hurried into the room and gestured to Sombra. "It's urgent"

Sombra followed him to the listening post and sat at a terminal. He queued the audio of the Overwatch meeting in Gibraltar and played it. Sombra went white as she listened.

"No, they can't know..." she assured herself. She listened to the audio again to try to make sense of Dr. Ziegler. "Do you have a transcript?"

The intelligence officer nodded and handed her the paper. She noted the time.

"Urgent? This is from this morning," said Sombra looking at the spook with an irked expression.

"You were unavailable..."

He meant she was having sex with Gabriel. Sombra sucked on her teeth and nodded in annoyance. "OK, so I was unavailable..."

Evidently quite a bit had happened during that time.

She went through with a pencil and started ticking off the instances of the word 'know' to try to help get a sense if Dr. Ziegler knew she'd tapped them. She did it again assisted by her processor and she still couldn't get a sense.

" _No manches_ ," she muttered, “is Swiss Miss fucking with me?"

She parsed it into syntax trees to see if that would help then constructed her statements in symbolic logic before giving up. Computing power and natural language processing weren't going to help her. A paranoid feeling hit her. She tore the headphones off and headed back to the command center.

"I need satellite intel on Watchpoint Gibraltar, get me movement on incoming and outgoing planes," she ordered.

The Talon computer drones frantically worked at their terminals as Miguel continued his statement.

“Our position is nuanced, Mexico supports the ideals of Overwatch. We believe these maligned heroes should have a fair trial and should be given adequate legal resources to make their case. We hold them until we can independently determine that the proceedings will be fair. We will also be holding them to protest Mexico's revoked membership status in the Organization of American States and US economic sanctions-”

“Shut up,” said Sombra and with a few strokes on her haptic keyboard the monitor displaying Miguel blinked out.

"I have an Orca coming back from Rio de Janerio"

"An Orca arrived in Zurich a few hours ago"

"Shit," muttered Sombra as she began to pace. Were these the actions of people who knew they were being spied on? Why would they fly on aircraft that she could so easily track? Were they trying to reveal their movements or was it misdirection?  _Why aren't they coming here? They are supposed to come here. Didn't they see what happened to Jack? Don't they watch the news?_

"Problem?" asked Widowmaker, appearing suddenly, "I haven't seen you like this in a long time"

Sombra humphed and ignored her but it was only to focus on a spike of paranoia shooting into her brain.

" _Oh là là_ , you _are_ panicking. Nothing you'd like to share, _ma souris_?"

"I don't have time for you," Sombra snapped cruelly.

Widowmaker frowned at Sombra's rudeness. "So be it," she said as she walked off, “its a weakness, pride. You never know when to ask for help”

Sombra watched the plane on the world map leave Rio de Janeiro. Would they tell Lucio she was still alive? Did they even know for sure? Would they get him to work against her? What did they know?

Sombra paced as her head wound in circles.

“Ugh, I can't think!”

Usually in a pinch like this a hit of coke or a few shots of tequila would calm her nerves and give her an a relaxed edge to get her evil mind twisted enough to find a solution. Her only drug had been sexual gratification. She couldn't go to Gabriel now, he'd see her mission potentially falling apart.

“Agent Sombra,” said a Talon officer rushing into the room, “Reaper wants to see you in the detention center”

She watched the screen.

“Fuck,” she muttered under her breath and marched out.

* * *

Jack sat motionless in his cell. The only thing he could do was seethe with anger. Talon had left him alone after Gabriel settled his old score for blowing him up all those years ago. He'd beaten him up for a long time without uttering a word. Jack knew it was on account of his unusual condition, Gabriel would rather be dead. He openly wondered if Reyes had tried to kill him self yet. It was unclear what Gabriel Reyes's existence had become, but whatever it was, he was pissed about it. Revenge was a bitch, now Jack had two sore spots and a double sore spot for Sombra. It was the only thing that occupied his time besides worrying about Ana and Reinhardt and wondering if anyone was stupid enough to rescue him. If only he could get Sombra to talk again, Jack knew he had a talent for getting under people's skin.

His mind wheeled listlessly in the cold until he began to hear voices.

"What?" he said aloud to no one.

Jack had undergone rigorous mental conditioning and endured capture scenarios before. In total solitary confinement, the voices didn't usually start until weeks. Horrific blue florescent lights illuminated the room with a dim unnatural hue making it impossible to sleep or tell the time but Jack was sure it had hardly been a few days.

"It's the president's orders..."

"You're kidding me..."

"I'm not starting a fight with him..."

"We only need two..."

No they weren't in his head. They were coming from somewhere. The soundproofed room was compromised. Jack hobbled around the cell on his knees to try and find the source so he could listen clearly.

"He's making a statement... Maybe we can use this..."

It was maddening, the voices were so soft, no wonder he thought they were hallucinations. His aimless shuffling was getting him nowhere. He pressed his ear against the floor and they got louder.

"Ahah!" said Jack looking somewhat ridiculous with his butt in the air.

"No, Sombra. Talon comes first we're keeping them all here," he heard Reaper say.

"Staying quiet on this is hurting us. We need spin on this. Miguel is making the right move. You just don't like it"

Their tones were argumentative.

"I told you to get your puppet under control, we're in charge here not the other way around. We're using the prisoners as leverage on the Mexican government remember?"

"I thought that was fucking foreplay Gabe but I guess you really are that thick. Let me spell it out for you, Reinhardt will still be a prisoner, he's still ours. He'll just be held under house arrest while they 'investigate' why he's here, get it?"

"He wants a prisoner? Then we have to get something from him. Your man hasn't been following orders, Sombra"

“Hmm, trouble in paradise,” grumbled Jack as he listened.

"What, you mean for Talon's war? What do you want me to do about it, huh? Mexico is not a Talon colony"

"He's not getting out of his deal. That was with me. But you're the one that put him in power, he's your responsibility"

"Fuck you, Gabe. You think you can send me on a enforcing errand right now?"

There was some scuffling. The argument sounded like it was getting physical. This was very interesting.

"Ooh, firecracker," muttered Jack with a chuckle.

"Do it or I'll do it for you. So, get him in line..."

Jack remembered from the email scandal last year that Sombra was some kind of bizarre patriot, a left-wing nationalist. Jack schemed. Maybe this could drive a wedge between her and Gabriel. He just needed to get inside her head... Another conversation. 


	8. Chapter 8

Sombra could see the smoke rising from the end of Reaper's gauntlet as he held her coat. He was very close to losing his cool. His other hand was balled into a fist.

“You think I'm still afraid of you, Gabe?” she taunted, “come on, hit me. You know I like it”

He forced her against the wall. Sombra at first looked surprised from the sudden force but then her classic cocky smile grew on her face. Several Talon guardsmen and Mexican military police looked on fearfully at the bizarre scene in silence.

Sombra nodded towards them. “We can do it right here, in front of everyone,” she continued to goad him on, “you'd like that right? You can show everyone how in charge you are”

Reaper shouted as he drew back a punch but held it. Sombra didn't flinch, she spit in front of him and held her chin up. Reaper roared and slammed the punch next to her face leaving a small crater in the concrete wall. Inky black smoke rose from the hole.

“Yeah yeah, take it out on the wall, _cabron_ ,” taunted Sombra, pretending to be agreeable, “like a neurotic house cat that's just seen a bird.” Suddenly, she grit her teeth. “Fuck you, you fucking coward”

Reaper pulled her from the wall and let go. Slowly the smoke rising from his joints dissipated.

“You,” he said finally, “you've delayed long enough. If you haven't talked to Miguel by tomorrow morning you're both out of the picture. He gets nothing. Hear me? Nothing”

He blew past her towards the exit.

“Sir, security protocol...” said the guard at the security station.

“Do I look like I want to be checked?”

“No, sir”

He pushed the guards aside and stormed out. Sombra brushed herself off and noticed they were staring at her.

“Yeah, take a fucking picture,” she snapped.

The guards turned promptly towards the MP's to explain to them that no prisoner transfer would take place. Whatever Miguel was planning would have to be put on hold.

When all else failed, rank in Talon was ultimately determined by who could kill whom. It occurred to her that it didn't matter how much she'd accomplished, she'd never be equal to Gabriel. She'd have to kill him if she was ever going to surpass him in Talon's implicit hierarchy. It was unfortunate because Reaper was unkillable. Sombra's mind swilled with hatred for Reaper. She'd work it out with him later.

Sombra's eyes fell on the hallway leading to where the prisoners were held. It would only be a matter of time before Overwatch would use Lucio to find her. She didn't know the game they were playing but she suspected they were waiting for her to make a mistake. If they wanted to wait she would extract a pound of flesh for every day they didn't come. She smiled. This time when they cracked her bugs they'd have something waiting for them...

* * *

“I've got bad news, Jack," said Sombra storming into Jack's cell, "your friends aren't coming to rescue you"

Jack looked up. There was a twisted look on her face. Her voice was shaky as if she were trying to repress something. He immediately got the sense that she was trouble but he kept his cool. "That means they're smart, they aren't taking the bait"

Sombra laughed.

"Hardly, that just means I just have to get more creative," said Sombra. Her eyes were alight with nefarious intent. "As you will see, I'm very creative and I've got big plans for you three"

A Talon guard stepped in carrying a steel tray with a syringe on it.

"Whats that? Some kind of torture drug? Sorry to tell you but you're wasting your time. That crap won't do anything to me"

"Jack, my friend, you didn't even let me tell you what it is," she said with a smirk. "I borrowed it from my friend, Amelie. You remember her, right?"

Suddenly, Jack's face went gray. What the hell was she about to put in him? Sombra saw the color drain from his face and smirked.

"Thought so. Stay still, Jack," she said taking the syringe. "We don't want anything unexpected to happen..." The soldier immediately made his way out, perhaps having a distaste for torture. She leaned in and whispered into his ear as she plunged the syringe into his shoulder, "I know you wanted to talk, Jack. But I think it will have to be a bit one-sided for now, OK, _amigo_?"

Jack's eyes widened as he felt the black viscous goo push into his blood stream. His vision immediately blurred as he felt a chemical burn in his veins.

"Some funny things about my friend, Amelie," said Sombra dropping the empty syringe to the floor, "she has almost no heart rate but she's still alive." She watched Jack's veins collapse and turn purple. He sputtered and fell forward, writhing from the internal pain. Sombra grabbed his head by his hair to speak into his face. "I dunno, I think your endurance is a bit of a liability here, Jack," she said as his eyes rolled into the back of his head.

Sombra activated her wrist camera.

"You want to play games with me? It will cost you.” She held Jack's face up to her wrist so the implanted camera could get a clear shot. "This is for you, Dr. Ziegler so get a good look. I'm afraid your ex-husband is not doing too well. I gave him something of Amelie's and well, I'm not a scientist so it's anyone's guess what its doing to him. Better get here soon...”

“You're playing a losing game...” groaned Jack, “I know Gabriel”

Sombra's face contorted with hate and annoyance. She turned off the camera.

“What did you say?”

Jack's body convulsed as he exhaled pained breaths but the sound was odd. Sombra's eyes went wide with disbelief when she realized he was laughing. Slowly the laughter grew.

“You're trying to go over Gabriel's head? You're dumber than I thought,” said Jack, “you should do as he says...”

Sombra's anger spiked.

“What the fuck are you trying to say to me? Speak up before I give you some more, huh?”

“You said you're not afraid of him but you should be... Trust me, you don't know what we did to him”

Sombra grabbed him. “What did you do? Answer me!”

“He's like a parasite. How do you think a dead man grows new skin and hair?” Jack said laughing, “I heard you scrapping but you really shouldn't let him touch you”

She felt an indescribable feeling of dread hit her. How did he know? How did he hear? Sombra suddenly felt like she needed to get the hell out of there. Jack was creeping her out.

“Shut up,” said Sombra darkly as she threw his face down.

She left to let him writhe on the ground veering between his morbid laughter and fits of pain.That whole scene needed to be left behind.

Sombra walked briskly as if to get away from her own paranoid thoughts. Incompetent mercenaries, Overwatch agents playing bizarre mind games, Lucio and Hana actively working against her, her power struggle with Gabriel and now this new thing about him. It was all getting too much. She rapidly made her way to her compartment and stepped into the bathroom.

She frantically wiped off her smokey makeup and inspected her face. Did she look aged? Nothing looked wrong. She felt fine. No new marks or lines or anything strange. It didn't change the fact that Sombra felt ill. Gabriel had been cumming inside of her, she'd just trusted that he was shooting blanks because of whatever had happened to him. She took off her shirt and looked at her belly. Seemed normal. She turned to the side. Yep. What was she thinking? It had only been a couple of days. But if Gabriel was some kind of weird mutant maybe she'd show signs faster?

Sombra rubbed her face in anxiety. Her mood was all over the place, she desperately needed to unwind. She turned on the sink and closed her eyes to splash her face with some water.

“Trouble?”

Sombra looked up and gasped in terror. She saw a demon in the mirror, a man with a barn owl head for a face.

“What the fuck?” shouted Sombra as she recoiled in surprise, “Gabe, what are you doing here?”

“This is my room, I was sleeping”

All their stupid dormitories looked the same. She'd absent mindedly gone to Reaper's room. Sombra held her forehead and sighed.

“You sleep in your fucking barn owl mask, Gabe?”

“It was more of a nap,” he growled.

She turned and rested her hands on the sink. “OK, I'll just go then”

“Fine”

Sombra tapped her fingers on the sink as they stood there awkwardly. She was compelled to stay. To her disbelief she began to feel unbelievably horny. She couldn't help it, anxiety made her crave sex. “I'm not sorry about what I said”

Reaper stared at her silently.

Sombra blinked at him impatiently in turn. “Take the fucking mask off, Gabe,” she said as she lowered his hood and pulled off the mask. “Now listen close, you assholes won't let me drink or do any of my drugs in this god damned daycare and I am _fucking stressed_ ,” she said tilting her head to the side, “so, I need you to _fuck me_. Can you do that, Gabe?”

Reaper grunted in the affirmative.

She gave him a fake smile.

“Good, you can kill me later...”

 

* * *

 

_Watchpoint Gibraltar_

Winston gathered the Overwatch agents to the briefing room. The room was hushed on account of Winston's subdued affect. They had the sense they were about to hear something harrowing.

“I've cracked Sombra's bug in Lucio's audio gun, fascinating piece of equipment, by the way, but I'm afraid I have some bad news,” he said, “the endpoint where the bug transmits is just a server hosting a video. I'm sorry everyone, its gruesome”

He played it.

“You want to play games with me? It will cost you...” came Sombra's cruel voice over Athena's speakers.

The agents caught sight of Jack's veins collapsing and turning purple. Pharah and Tracer turned their heads away.

"This is for you, Dr. Ziegler so get a good look...”

“Oh my God,” said Lucio in a solemn tone, “I can't believe its her”

Again he was somehow struck with how low Sombra could go. Torture, mass-murder, blackmail, let alone lying and manipulation, nothing was beyond her. The honeymoon was over, Sombra was indeed alive but Lucio hardly recognized her. Her face and voice were all twisted with hate.

“Looks like your friend is alive, Lucio,” said Angela.

“That's not _my friend_ , something's happened to her,” insisted Lucio.

“It doesn't matter, Lucio. What matters is that you are willing to do what is necessary when the time comes,” said Angela, “can you do that, Lucio?”

Lucio hung his head. “I'll have to”

“I'm sorry, Lucio,” said Hana trying to be supportive, “you're doing the right thing”

Angela cleared her throat.

“It is morbid to say, but I believe Sombra has made a poor choice in her target,” she said, “my understanding of Jack's physiology leads me to believe he can withstand whatever she throws at him”

“But what about the damage, Angela?” noted Tracer, “pain causes psychological damage too ya know”

“And there's no telling what she'll do to my mother and Reinhardt”

“Yes, but I must insist she is pulling our strings in order to provoke us into making a wrong move-”

“That's yer Swiss neutrality talkin' doc,” interrupted Torbjorn, “I say we got to go in right away. Its what Jack would do if it were one of us in there!”

“Some perspective please,” said Angela, “there are other forces at work. Mexico wants to extradite the prisoners in exchange for removing sanctions. This runs counter to Talon's plans. There might be some sort of internal conflict we can take advantage of...”

“What does this have to do with anything!?” complained Torbjorn starting to become impatient.

“Listen! The longer we wait, the more likely Talon will be forced to turn the prisoners over. By not going in hastily we are depriving them of their media scandal. I can use my position in the UN to treat Jack favorably”

“Yer askin' our people to endure hell so you can pull bureaucratic strings to give them a tap on the wrist down the line?! You've got to be joking me! Come on!” said Torbjorn slapping his head, “was this your plan all along?!”

Angela huffed indignantly. “I am merely trying to avoid violence and stop ourselves from walking into a blatant trap!”

“Angela, I can't believe you!” shouted Pharah, “they're suffering!”

Hana and Lucio watched the Overwatch agents' conversation devolve into violent bickering. Their spirits were dropping, it was looking like Sombra was winning.

Suddenly, Winston roared over the hubbub.

“My apologies,” he said correcting his glasses, “I would like to simply add that our window of opportunity may be closing. Talon is pushing closer and closer to war by the day. Look”

Winston tapped a button on Athena's console and several news clips played.

“ _The Grain Trade Center in Vienna was the 17th urban bombing in 4 weeks blamed on Talon terrorists... Protests in South Korea continue for the 2nd week straight forcing the anti-Talon president to resign on allegations of corruption... 3 Navy SEALS died yesterday when Talon forces assisted by local Taliban assaulted US military bases in Afghanistan... A personal jet carrying the pro-EU Ukrainian finance minister was shot down by a Talon surface to air missile as it passed over the Dunbas region after negotiations with..._ ”

“The situation hasn't improved,” noted Winston, “Athena has been picking up an unusually large amount of Talon movement in Latin America. But there's more. The data revealed two locations. One near Mexico City which we believe is a Talon black site and another is a building in the capital of Guatemala"

"What's in Guatemala?" asked Tracer.

"They're hosting an emergency OAS session to debate Mexico's status," said Winston.

"Is it a threat? Some sort of terrorist attack?" asked Pharah.

"Looks to me like the type of target Sombra would hit," noted Winston, "considering her political commitments, of course"

Angela crossed her hands. "Maybe a decoy. She wants to split us," she said with a foreboding tone.

"What do we do Angela?" asked Tracer, "we have to act now or we'll lose them in the chaos, she could move them or kill them!"

Angela furrowed her brow. "It's her game, she'll decide what to do based on our decision... Of course, this could be misdirection. What reason do we have to believe that footage was taken at the site in Mexico? We're just assuming the prisoners are still there"

"Lucio, luv, you know Sombra best, what's she going to do? What's she thinking?"

"I don't know, I hardly know her anymore..."

Lucio was despondent, seeing Sombra like that was like a psychological sewage tank spewing over. He knew that Sombra was maladjusted, that she had problems but every time he encountered them there was some sort of whiplash that pulled him back. Now Lucio felt that she was some kind of villianess, there was no higher cause, no justification, she just wanted something and was willing to do anything to get it.

"Think luv"

"We need every advantage, Lucio," added Angela, "she must have a weakness..."

Lucio sighed and thought to himself before speaking. Hana held his hand to reassure him. The room was thick with anticipation.

"Sombra has the brain of a super computer, just in terms of her ability to calculate odds and predict, it's the computer on her back, but she has the emotional intelligence of an 8 year old, she runs from responsibilities and breaks down. I've seen her turn into a child when she's forced to face her actions"

Pharah shook her head in frustration, the information seemed useless.

"So, she runs away, huh?" noted Torbjorn.

Angela humphed and thought to herself, trying to make use of the information. Her eyes fell on Lucio and Hana. She'd gathered that Sombra was a close friend of his, whatever that could possibly mean for someone like her. There was no mention of Lucio in the documentary, as if she were protecting him or hiding their connection. Sombra, meanwhile, had sent in mercenaries to terminate Lucio and Hana, perhaps to wash her hands of them and tie up a loose end. Why hadn't she sent Talon agents or done it herself? Maybe they were a key somehow or a weakness...

"I have a plan, we're moving in," stated Angela.

“Finally,” muttered Torbjorn.

"We now have enough people to split our forces. We have to stop whatever she's planning for the OAS, the rest of us will prepare to move on the base and rescue our people. Lucio, I hope you don't mind being volunteered for this mission. Given your past connection to Sombra, I think we've found a way to box her in"

Torbjorn piqued up. "Wait a sec, doc. If I hear what the kid is sayin' we could ramp up the anxiety for 'er. I say we draw straws n' make it her move. Ya' got to remember she's always listening"

"Right, shortest go to the OAS"

They drew straws and looked at each other.

"Interesting... should we draw again?" asked Winston.

"No," insisted Angela, "make no mention of your team. I need to prepare the cover for the agents going to Guatemala, then they'll move out right away. Their mission is to stop whatever Sombra is planning, if she's on site we'll need to capture her so we can confirm if the prisoners are still at the Mexico base. The rest of us will be prepared to hit the base as soon as we have word. We'll have to move undetected so we can't be hasty"

"So we still delay..." said Pharah crossing her arms.

 

* * *

 

_Outside Talon black site, Mexico City_

“Oi, Roady, whaddaya think a these Talon drongos offerin' us a job?” shouted Junkrat as they approached the Talon black site in their replacement jeep hover SUV. A massive Talon cargo transport with a stealthy profile flew overhead and deployed its gear to land. “Looks like they're a mite busy at the moment...”

“Mmmuugh,” replied Roadhog.

“Thought you might say that,” muttered Junkrat. “an between you an' me, I think this Agent Sombra is the same Sombra we been 'earin about on the tely”

They pulled up to the checkpoint and a Talon stormtrooper stepped out of the guard house. Even from behind his gasmask the mercenaries could tell the soldier was eyeing them suspiciously. Junkrat replied to his skeptical gaze with a broad smile, showing off the dismal state of his teeth. The guard grunted in mild disgust.

“Names?”

“Junkrat n' Roadhog, we're expected”

“Business?”

The pair briefly exchanged annoyed glances but Junkrat maintained his cheerful demeanor. “Just told ya, mate. We're expected”

The soldier continued to eye them suspiciously in distrustful silence. Roadhog cracked his neck impatiently as Junkrat's smile began to slowly shrink.

“Look mate, we gotta contract with Agent Sombra...”

“I'll call it in...” interrupted the soldier as he stepped into the guard house.

Roadhog gave an impatient grumble and Junkrat debated pounding the accelerator and blowing through the gate so he didn't have to deal with this officious twit.

“Blimey, what a wombat,” muttered Junkrat. He stretched his arms out against the wheel impatiently. “You mercs understand that right? A contract? Ya know, money?!” he shouted after the guard.

* * *

Sombra twisted and sighed passionately over the sound of her implanted phone ringing as Gabriel held her down by her wrists and thrust into her. He felt her tense and become uncooperative causing him to stop. She lay still panting for a moment before swallowing and opening her sleepless eyes at Gabriel. She gave him a confrontational look. "I need to take this"

Gabriel grumbled. Sombra blinked at him. "I need my wrists..." she said passive aggressively.

He let go. Sombra cleared her throat and took the call. A hologram of the Talon checkpoint guard was projected from her wrist.

"Yeah, what is it?" she answered. She looked over the hologram at Gabriel. "Oh, you don't have to stop, Gabe"

"Two Junkers said you're expecting them... They're not on our schedule," he said looking somewhat dismayed at Sombra's state.

Sombra inhaled sharply as Gabriel thrust in. "Yeah..." she moaned.

"What?"

She cleared her throat. "Yeah, I'm expecting them, let them in," she said impatiently, "oh, and if anyone says they're with me in the future, don't fucking waste my time and just let them in"

"Understood"

"Fucking asshole," muttered Sombra as she ended the call. Gabriel resumed holding her down and pressed in now that she would be more cooperative. Sombra moaned reflexively and fluttered her smokey eyelids closed as she felt him penetrate her deep. Suddenly, they shot open and Gabriel felt her become assertive again. "Hey, I need to make this quick..."

* * *

The guard stepped back out with a disconcerted look on his face as the gate rose.

“You're good to go,” he said waving them through.

Junkrat rolled his eyes. “Oi, bet its hard yacka wastin' people's time all day. Thanks for nothin', ya mug,” he said gunning the accelerator.

“Mmuugh,” Roadhog concurred as they cleared their way towards the Talon base.

“I tell ya' Roadie, I think they hassle us because they don't appreciate our splendorous sartorial looks”

“Mmuugh”

“That little chinwags got me all the more convinced its racism. We've got to make the world understand and _respect_ Junker culture...”

“Mmmuugh,” said Roadhog in a judgmental tone.

“Not politically correct? Don't get the shits on _my_ language, I mean what I said n' said what I meant. I mean, we're not wogs but we're still a disenfranchised minority”

Roadhog shook his head in exasperation with his highstrung partner.

* * *

Gabriel flipped Sombra on her front causing her to let out a pleasureful sigh from being overwhelmed by the sudden force. He held her arms and aggressively thrust into her. It hurt but she was getting there. For a minute there was the sound of clapping skin and Sombra's moans as Gabriel worked her. Finally, Sombra shuddered and let out a deep moan syncopated by the sound of Gabriel humping her as her orgasm hit. Gabriel continued but his breathing indicated he was about to finish. He pressed her head down and squeezed her arm as he tensed, Sombra arched her back towards him so she could take him as he thrust his entire length in and came inside her. 

He pulled away and hung his head when he finished.

Sombra rolled over with a pissed off look on her face. "I don't like it when you interrupt me when I'm cumming," she said sounding hurt.

"You have so many, what do you care?"

"I care because I don't get off, then I have to masturbate later or find you again"

Gabriel humphed. "That's if you follow your orders today"

Sombra laughed sarcastically.

"Fuck you, Gabe. You really don't care, huh? You'll just do me in?" she said morbidly as she got up, "you're a real asshole"

She dressed and stormed out slamming the door but he knew she'd be back, if not today than tomorrow. Sombra was losing their sociopathic game, Reaper had learned that sex was a weakness for Sombra. Now he was getting off on her more than she was on him and she knew it. She hated him with an undying passion. He was like a male lion just bossing around the females and reaping the benefits of their accomplishments. She wasn't sure what she expected, although somewhere in the back of her mind was an image of them gossiping in Spanish over a cigarette after kinky sex. Sombra sniffed as she walked briskly holding back her tears.

Sombra passed Widowmaker in the halls. She gave her an evil smile as she slowly tapped on her wrist. How did she know? What kind of horrible strings was she pulling? She didn't know if her and Gabriel still talked and schemed together. Maybe this was all part of some bizarre plan. A jolt of paranoia shot down Sombra's back.

Junkrat and Roadhog stood awkwardly waiting in front of the command center when they saw Sombra approach them in a terrible mood.

"Oi, its the lady 'erself!"

"Shut up, rat," she snapped, "lets get you two failures up to speed"

" _Failures?_ " asked Junkrat indignantly, "excuse me?"

"Mmugh!"

Sombra stepped up to Junkrat and grabbed him by his bomb belt pulling him close.

"Yes," she said cocking her head with a fake smile, "failures. I told you to terminate a target. You missed them and detonated a bunch of innocent people." She pushed him back causing him to stumble. "So, now you follow _my orders_. Got it?"

"Yeah..." said Junkrat regarding her with more than a bit of apprehension.

"So, what are you?" she asked impatiently.

"Umm, you're still on this bit?"

" _Te voy a dar una galleta!_ " she cursed, giving Junkrat a smack on the cheek.

"Ow!"

Sombra glared at Junkrat with cruel impatient eyes. Several patrolling Talon mercenaries eyed the pair of Junker's conspicuously as they passed.

"Mmugh?" offered Roadhog breaking the silence.

"Very good, Roadhog. You're failures," she said, "but I think I know a way your capacity for wanton destruction will be useful. Follow me"

"Takin' her side, Roady? Real classy," said Junkrat rubbing his face as Sombra turned and started walking.

 

* * *

 

_The next morning, Chapultepec Castle_

"Comrade president," said Sombra into Miguel's ear as he slept.

Some well ingrained guerrilla reflex kicked in and he immediately snorted awake.

"Sombra! You're alive?" he said groggily, "you scared the shit out of me"

She sat moodily at the head of his bed in silence as he came to. Miguel detected something was off.

"You're here to kill me..."

"Maybe," she said darkly, "Reaper told me to inform you that you owe us and he is very disappointed"

"Ah, I'm not contributing to Talon's war"

"Bingo," she said extending her index finger, "never mind that I saved your ass from getting assassinated by Overwatch agents"

"That's why Talon refused my prisoner request..." said Miguel frowning as the sleep left his eyes, "you know its very strange of you to drop them at my feet then whisk them away, what was that? A message?"

"Very good again, Mr. President," said Sombra investigating her nails, "I have to be honest, its not my preference but things are a little out of my hands"

"So my desire to gain the respect of the international community is not appreciated," noted Miguel as he hunched over forward in bed.

"No, Miguel, its not. But then again, its not a catastrophe, when has respectability ever payed off for people like you?" she said in a somber tone, "that's part of why I'm here"

Miguel was silent, he didn't like the way Sombra was speaking. He'd spent the majority of his time in office trying to make sure the revolution would survive in an obscene balancing act of skillful compromise and demonstrations of force. She was about to undo all his work.

"You're here to 'get the ball rolling' again," said Miguel sounding exhausted, "as you do"

Sombra regarded the president's body. He wore a v-neck undershirt and boxer briefs, she wasn’t sure if that was odd, but then again Sombra wasn’t sure what a president was supposed to wear to bed. He'd gotten thinner as a politician but he still had the body of a guerrilla fighter. She shifted herself next to Miguel.

"Do you mind?"

"No..." he said somewhat apprehensively.

Sombra took his jaw in her hand and manipulated him to inspect his face.

"How about now?"

"I'm starting to wonder..." he said tracking her with his eyes as she turned his head left and right.

Sombra chuckled. "You've lost weight. Stress?"

"I'm sure," he said as she let go, "speaking of which, tell me whatever horrible thing it is that Talon wants me to do"

"You weren't invited to the emergency OAS session in Guatemala"

"I lodged a formal complaint"

Sombra grinned an evil grin.

"Well, Mexico is still going and I'll be sure to let them know your position," she said. Miguel sighed and shook his head. "Problem?"

"Yes, my _position_ is that I want Mexico to stay out of Talon's expensive and unnecessary war."

Sombra frowned. "You know I can't let you do that, Miguel"

"Respectfully, fuck off," he snapped, "you should know, this is a poor country. You know how fast money leaves the country when a left-wing government takes power?” He snapped his fingers. “Like that, its called capital flight, there is no one to tax. I have a universal healthcare plan I am trying to establish, nationalizing the energy sector costs money, I'm trying to raise the minimum wage to a living wage while I undo the damage of decades of failed neoliberal economic policies. I've got idiots to my left hounding me to eliminate racism, poverty and unemployment—do you know the _encapuchados_ turned on me?—and I've got reactionary assholes to the right going on strike and not paying their taxes. So, tell me where is the money for your shiny Talon tanks and planes?”

"Huh," said Sombra flatly as she reached for her machine pistol.

"Stop. That won't be necessary," said Miguel holding his hand out, "I'll get it done. But surely you can appreciate the situation"

Sombra became steely. “You know me, I'm a naive girl, Mr. President. Sometimes I think politics is really just about willpower”

“You sound like a fascist"

“So be it,” she replied coolly.

"Look how you've grown," said Miguel in a patronizing tone, "last year you were calling me out for my dissolution of the popular front. Now you are enforcing for Talon"

Sombra sighed and stood up with her back to Miguel inspecting the ornate room. "Sorry, comrade president, these days I'm a spy not a revolutionary"

"No," Miguel stepped behind her and grabbed her shoulders and forcefully turned her around. It startled her slightly, she wasn’t used to being physically manipulated outside of sex and combat. “I know you, Sombra. I can tell when your heart isn’t in something. This isn’t you, this is Reaper, isn’t it?” he said.

She stared at him in silence. “What do you know?” she said resentfully.

Miguel let go and gave her a suspicious look. She’d felt strangely limp as if she wouldn’t have tried to get away. Her voice was hurt. “I know that despite your attitude, you actually care about the future of this country," he asserted, "I know you are not content to be a slave"

Sombra scoffed.

"What if,” Miguel started, “what if you worked for me?"

"You'll hurt yourself talking like that, Miguel," warned Sombra.

"Oh really? Not if I stay with Talon? And what about yourself? I’ve seen their psychotic power politics, can you count a single on of them as your friend?” Sombra huffed disdainfully at this remark. “There are no ranks yet everyone is trying to get ahead of someone else. What will your loyalty and viciousness have earned you when Talon conquers the planet?”

He was right. Sombra looked at the floor. The ornate room reminded her of her night with Lucio. It was difficult for her to be here. She needed to leave.

"At the very least we can work together, I'm sure you are invested in making sure I see out my  _sexenio_ "

"More than you think," she said walking towards the window to make her exit, "I'll think about it. In the mean time, do what you were put here to do"

 


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Got a lot of plot threads going on, I'm tryna get to the action soon so stay tuned...

“Activity at a supposedly abandoned Overwatch Watchpoint. What could it mean? This is Emma Blackwood reporting at Watchpoint Gibraltar. This historically contentious strip of territory was handed over by the United Kingdom to Overwatch in the heady days of the Omnic Crisis. This special team and I have been camped out for days to get the scoop on this base which has recently become alight with activity… What was that?”

The camera span wildly as they heard a twig snap and heavy breathing. Suddenly, there was an animalistic roar as the camera briefly caught sight of what appeared to be a huge hairy man in an armored suit. There was scattered yelling and confusion before the camera man spooked and began to book it. The camera shook over the sounds of its poor operator breathing as he ran for dear life until he appeared to hit something. The camera fell to the ground to catch sight of hairy feet.

“Absolutely monstrous, Winston,” applauded Angela as the footage came to an end on Athena’s console.

“What can I say? Intruders make me angry,” he replied bashfully.

“Now, what do we do with you, Ms. Blackwood?”

“You lot better let me go,” she said struggling against her binds.

Tracer subtly rocked her neck with a smarmy smile. “Or else wot, luv? You’ll berate us with more of your crappy metaphors and alliterations? Where'd you learn all that, boarding school?”

“You don’t know the bloody half of it,” she threatened, “how long do you think you can hold me before the world notices? I’m famous, you idiots. You’re all going to jail”

Angela rubbed her chin. “Tracer, dear, would you mind covering Ms. Blackwood’s mouth for the time being?”

“With pleasure,” she said taping over Emma’s mouth, “not so fancy now, are we? Ya bloody nob”

Emma recoiled her neck and struggled as Tracer did the honor’s with duct tape. “Wait! Wait! I’ll make a deal”

Angela gestured to pause.

“Lets let her speak”

“Aww, rubbish...”

Emma started but Angela interrupted, “However, think very closely about what you are about to say, we will trade one for one, yes?”

She barely thought about it before shaking her head. She was in a bad situation but they had nothing on her. “You were wrong, I’m not a Talon agent but I work for them. Its just a job, I can work for you, no hard feelings”

Tracer folded her arms distrustfully. The other Overwatch agents exchanged knowing glances. They had just owned Emma Blackwood.

“OK, now we will tell you something,” said Angela with a conniving smile, “this base is being monitored, Talon can hear everything we say”

“ _Shit..._ ” cursed Emma.

Angela raised her eyebrows in response.

“So, I don’t know if you truly meant what you said,” she continued, “but I think you’d better keep your word if you want to survive...”

“You really stepped in it, luv”

 

* * *

 

_Talon black site, outside Mexico City_

Sombra eyed Gabriel from his bed as she lay naked in repose. Her eyes tracked him as he walked about his room in the nude impatiently puttering about in awkward silence. Sombra assumed he was trying to look busy to get her to leave. She watched his dick, still mostly engorged from their romp, flop against his thigh as he walked. She found him ridiculous.

“Still here?” he asked.

 _Hmph, what a badass,_ she thought. Sombra blinked to shake off his rudeness and brought her eyes to his face.

“Yeah, want to talk about it?” 

“This eats up my time, Sombra...”

She humphed and took a sullen tone. “Maybe I can make it worth your while”

He sighed impatiently.

“OK, your mission to Guatemala, what about the agents, Sombra?”

Sombra loved these hostile conversations with Reaper. If he was pressed for time and wanted her to leave she would intentionally drag the conversation out. She glowered at him from behind her smokey makeup to create more awkward silence.

“Its to put pressure on them," she finally replied, "they’ll be forced to deal with the threat”

“Not for personal business? And what about the Junkers?”

“Hey, you wanted your war, right?” Sombra rolled on her back and rubbed between her legs. She felt slick from Gabriel’s cum. She raised her hand to her face to inspect it. Seemed normal enough. “The Junkers are just some extra firepower. Try not to think about them, _cabron_ ”

Gabriel grumbled.

“And what about you, Reaper?” said Sombra turning on her side, “where have you been sending Widowmaker?”

“She’s hunting...”

“Right”

Suddenly, there was an impatient knock on the door, when there was no response it swung open. It was Widowmaker. She eyed the room with her steely eyes and _really_ didn’t like what she saw. However, her nerves didn’t budge. The three of them stood silently as their sociopathic dynamic palpably swirled about the room. Sombra made the first move.

“Speak of the devil,” she muttered, “you don’t lock your door, Gabriel?”

“Both your communications are off,” said Widowmaker icily, “Sombra, you have a situation. Your pet reporter has been captured”

“Yeah?” replied Sombra pretending to be unfazed.

Widowmaker gave a condescending chuckle. “The command room is where I think you want to be, _n’est pas_?”

Amelie kept her icy gaze unflinchingly on Sombra but Sombra didn’t budge. She turned her surgical gaze to Gabriel.

“Enjoying your distraction?”

Sombra rolled her eyes and shook her head in disdain. Widowmaker was _pissed_.

“We’ll talk,” he said flatly.

“I can talk now,” Widowmaker snipped.

Sombra suddenly caught a chill, it was as if Widowmaker was actually making the room cooler. With morbid amusement, Sombra watched Gabriel’s dick to see if it would shrivel.

“Sombra, go to the command room,” Gabriel ordered.

Sombra lay still drinking in the hostility with self-destructive glee.

“Right away, Gabe,” she replied sarcastically as she lazily lifted herself from the bed. Sombra layered on the fake politesse. “Hey, Widow, do you mind closing the door?”

Widowmaker gently pushed the door shut with a haphazard tap.

Sombra ran her hand through her hair to show off her body causing Widowmaker to exhale a little scoff as she put her hand on her hip. Sombra stepped by her muttering a passive aggressive, “excuse me” to pick up her clothes. She knew Widowmaker had an acute sense of smell, this was olfactory terrorism for her: she'd pick up everything from Sombra, her and Gabe's sweat, the smell of her sex and the bleach odor of his ejaculate. Sombra couldn't help a split second little smirk as she passed.

As Sombra casually dressed in front of them with a moody pout, Widowmaker decided the most disrespectful thing to do was to talk about her as if she wasn’t there.

“She’s wasting your time,” she said.

“ _Don’t_ get involved”

“We need to focus on the mission”

“If Sombra can’t get the agents here in 3 days then we're transferring them to the Azores base and focusing on escalation actions”

This was news to Sombra.

“Fine”

They were interrupted by the sound of Sombra zipping her body suit up. She passed by Widowmaker on the way to the door. Widow stopped her.

“See you in the briefing room,” she said. Sombra blinked. What was she on about? “Why, you haven’t forgotten our mission, have you?”

Sombra looked off to the side, she had forgotten that the OAS session was convening tomorrow. They would have to leave in the next couple of hours. Widowmaker had an infuriating way of infantilizing her.

“No”

“Good, I value our time together”

Sombra pushed by Widowmaker carrying her coat. The door quickly shut behind her. Widowmaker really was a piece of work, her modifications made her nerves as hard as black ice, no amount of social animus could make her flinch. Sombra sighed and scanned the hallway to see if anyone was looking at her. When she was certain no one was there she uncharacteristically rushed to the command room.

* * *

“I was bloody surprised they ‘ad a uniform in your size, mate,” said Junkrat as they hauled their nefarious equipment towards the Talon base’s detention center. They stepped up to the security checkpoint.

“What’s all this?” said the Talon guard.

“We’re workin’ on the electricals, bub”

“Mmugh,” asserted Roadhog.

“What’s your clearance?” asked the guard skeptically.

“Level three,” Junkrat replied sticking his chin up.

The guard began to scrutinize their curious looking duffle bag.

“What’s in there?”

“Nunnaya business,” said Junkrat slapping the guard on the wrist as he reached for the zipper, “look, we’re modifying the locks on the solitary confinement cells an’ that’s more than your right to know. Agent Sombra sent us, you can take it up with ‘er”

The guard sighed. Talking to Sombra was more trouble than it was worth.

“Just go on through..."

* * *

“Agent Sombra, Emma Blackwood’s been captured,” said a useless drone.

Sombra peered off to the side in thought. She had become uncertain that this whole Talon gig was working out.

“What did the bug pick up?” she asked.

A drone hustled to get a transcript into her hand. She scanned it then crumpled it in her hands in anger. How Sombra wished she could just press a button and blow the bitch’s head off. There was nothing she hated more than traitors.

“OK…” she said coolly as she felt the stress hit her, “minor setback...”

The world was still watching the ‘Sombra Revealed’ documentary. She and Talon still had the global media by the balls, although this was certainly disconcerting. Sombra looked at the world map display.

“What’s the status of the Gibraltar base?”

“No movement”

“No movement?” Sombra repeated with a low anger. The staff in the room eyed her nervously. "No movement?" she said again as she felt a spike of rage. “ _No fucking movement?!_ ” she shouted as her anger peaked. “What are they waiting for? Don't they care? I tortured the bastard!” She grabbed an officer manning the nearest terminal by the collar. “Are they just trying to drive me nuts? Answer me!”

“I have no idea!”

“Fucking useless! What the fuck do you look at on those screens all day?” she shouted in his face before throwing him back down, “God damn you!”

She picked up a monitor and threw it to the ground. When it didn't break in a satisfying way she pulled out her machine pistol. The room ducked for cover as she cocked it and sprayed 60 rounds into the defenseless monitor. She stood hunched over like a feral person as they stared at her in fearful silence.

“What does it actually take, huh?”

She rubbed her face then sat in an empty chair whose former occupant was now hiding under his station desk.

“I'm losing it man...” Sombra exhaled slowly to calm herself. “OK, _cálmate_...” she muttered then picked up the crumpled transcript and flipped through. Hesitantly, the command staff returned to their seats as she read. “You,” said Sombra grabbing the hiding operator under his desk, “you’re gonna help me. I’m tired of figuring this shit out on my own”

She got up, hauled him into her chair then shoved the transcript into his hands.

“Read it, I’ll wait,” she snapped impatiently, “find a weakness, why aren’t they moving?”

The Talon operator blinked at her then quickly shoved his nose in the paper, reading it as quickly as possible.

“Here,” he pointed to a line, “she says it plainly: ‘Sombra has made a poor choice in her target’”

“Jack was a 'poor choice,' huh?” she laughed cruelly, “man, if there were ever words that bitch was going to regret...” Sombra caught herself when a small jolt of paranoia hit her. “But they could know I can hear, why would she say that?”

He shrugged.

“Better find an answer, _pendejo,_ ” she threatened, “suggestions anyone?” The room was silent. “ _Anyone?_ ” she repeated angrily.

There was a period of awkward silence. The young operator cleared his throat.

“Maybe the problem has been trying to figure out what they know. If you want them to come here, you have to figure out where to apply the pressure. Another prisoner, maybe?”

Sombra narrowed her eyes at the operator. _OK, so he’s not an idiot._

“You’re a good guy,” said Sombra resting her hand on his head. He awkwardly froze as she held her hand on his head in thought. After some time, her eyes shifted and she slid her hand off. “Watch that base, I want notice as soon as there’s movement,” she said then walked briskly to her room. She had some research to do.

* * *

She sat down and booted her terminal to look over the data she'd collected from Watchpoint Gibraltar. All the agents were fairly smart and talented. It didn't look like there was a weakness. Lucio, as long as Hana was with him, would not be manipulated. Now she'd gone too far. She played through the conversations she'd collected over the week at 3 times speed. There wasn’t much time before she had to depart on her mission to La Antigua which had become a fucking nuisance. She arrived at Angela's diatribe when she paused. She heard an unfamiliar voice.

"Angela I-," it said sounding confused and looking to be reassured.

"I'll explain later," Angelia interrupted.

 _Who was that?_ thought Sombra, _when did she get there?_ She sounded so unsure... Sombra cross checked the flights coming into Watchpoint Gibraltar. There was one more than there were agents. Interesting. So one of them was not an agent. Sombra leaned back and brought the recording all the way back to that morning. She impatiently sat through the sounds of Winston eating and breathing as he watched the news until the agents started to arrive.

"I believe you requested Fareeha as well..." said Athena.

Sombra repeated it.

"Fareeha? Who the hell is that?"

She played the recording. They hadn't transcribed the news so Fareeha's reaction was out of context. Sombra shook her head, fucking incompetent. Sombra was starting to get a better sense. This woman had been intimidated by Emma, too bad she was out of the picture. Fareeha or Pharah or whatever was the weakest link.

"Lets get a look at you," said Sombra tapping on her haptic keyboard.

Sombra brought up her Helix Security profile and social media accounts.

"Justice, justice, justice, is there anything else in your head, chica?" she asked no one. Sombra sighed and chuckled, "not quite as smart as mother it seems..."

Sombra tapped on her lip as a few less than wholesome thoughts popped into her head. With a few strokes on her keyboard images of Pharah in the press popped up.

"Yowza," muttered Sombra, suddenly gaining more interest.

She poked through. A proud picture of her wearing an old-school flight jacket and aviators, a picture of her crossing a finish line with her elegant muscles glistening with sweat, a candid picture of her smiling half-way embarrassed with a small towel around her neck as a photographer caught her at the end of a work out.

"She's a jock!"

Sombra's eyes thirstily regarded the Egyptian woman's hard body and chuckled. Now Sombra felt she saw the whole picture and her bully's instinct took over. Now she knew where to put the pressure...

Suddenly, there was a knock on her door.

“Agent Sombra, you’re wanted in the detention center”

“ _Chin,_ ” she muttered.

* * *

The Mexican MP’s were back. Sombra walked briskly up to the Talon guards. They handed her the order. It was official, the president had requested them himself.

“Agent Reaper told us to explicitly forbid this-”

Sombra saw an unexpected opportunity.

"Let them through," she interrupted, “I’ll handle the prisoner...”

Sombra knew what would happen if Reaper found out but she would be out of the country by the time he could do anything. Quite nihilistically, however, she didn't care. She supposed she'd just work it out with him in his bedroom.

Reinhardt waited silently in his cell when the unnatural blue fluorescent lights blinked on and the heavy door clanked open.

"Good news, buddy," she said stepping up to the massive German, "you're getting a luxury accommodation, personal request of the president himself"

"And my friends?"

Sombra licked the outside of her teeth and held her eyes on him for a moment, sizing him up before she spoke. Reinhardt was not necessarily the prisoner she wanted to be dealing with right now. "Oh, don't worry about them..."

Reinhardt laughed. "Hah! A clear attempt to divide us. I refuse to go! I demand to stay with my friends and allies," shouted Reinhardt, "you think you can use petty psychological tricks after a mere couple of days? You have not even begun to break my will!"

 _Frisky fellow_ , thought Sombra. The MPs behind Sombra shared nervous glances as Reinhardt ranted. He was massively imposing, a veritable man mountain. How would they restrain him?

An evil smile grew on Sombra's face. She leaned in to speak. "Sorry, _amigo_ , how long did you say you've been in here?"

Reinhardt went white. He didn't know but he kept his resolve. "Trickery! I spit on your petty offers and privileges," he said before leaning his neck back and loudly spitting with a dramatic 'pah!', "I will take nothing unless its given to my friends!"

After he'd spoken his piece he rolled his eyes up her body with a contemptuous frown and raised his chin in defiance. Sombra leaned back and raised her eyebrows in surprise. Actually, this guy was really quite amusing, like Shakespeare in the park, it was cheering her up. She smiled.

"Hmm, wouldn't you like to rest or eat, _amigo_?" asked Sombra with her hands behind her back, her right hand delicately gripped Ana's sleep gun.

"Are you deaf, vile woman?!" roared Reinhardt, "I say, no, never!"

Sombra blinked at Reinhardt a few times and her smile turned evil. Stress put her in a cruel mood, she decided she'd get her jollies by manipulating him. Sombra let go of Ana's gun and began processing Reinhardt's statements to put together a Bayesian persuasion model. She decided to get him in two moves.

"Reinhardt, I have no reason to lie to you, this is your chance to help your friends, you'll be able to talk to lawyers, the press, whatever you need once you're outside. You want to help your friends don't you?"

He was silent.

"I-"

"You have no criminal record," interrupted Sombra cocking her head, "so, you're the one who has to advocate for them, _amigo_. This is your chance, don't waste it on pride"

The MPs shuffled impatiently, still trying to anticipate if there would be action or not. Their equipment jangled with their movement disrupting Sombra's conversation. Reinhardt glared at them distrustfully.

"Don't look at them, look at me," said Sombra smiling as she caressed Reinhardt's face, "you're an honorable man, Reinhardt, but the battle isn't in this cell"

Even in the weird florescent light of the cell he could see Sombra was quite alluring. He got the sense he was looking at a mythical succubus, she was pleasant to look at but every part of her was weaponized, the details of her body were vicious and strange but the whole was beautiful. But the longer he looked at her the sensation reversed.

Then there was her scent, it was a bedroom smell tinged with cigarette smoke, it evoked memories in Reinhardt of lying comfortably next to a sexual conquest. The thought that she considered him honorable somehow excited a boyish part of him against all logic, maybe the lack of sleep really was getting to him. However, his rational mind could not help but detect a repressed aggressivity in her voice despite its seductiveness. He shook himself free and brought himself back to where he was, he didn't trust the person but he had no choice but to trust the words.

"Vile temptress," muttered Reinhardt as he turned his face away from her hand, "I accept in the name of my friends, but if you rescind on but _one_ promise there will be _hell_ to pay"

"Of course," she said returning her hand. "Take him out," she ordered the MPs.

They hustled over to Reinhardt and raised him from his knees and hustled him out the door.

"I'm sure I'll be seeing you again very soon, Reinhardt," she said fanning her fingers goodbye.

 _Chinga_ , it was three moves, she thought to herself. Those stupid guards interrupted her.

She ran her fingers through her hair. _That felt good,_ she thought to herself. With Emma gone, Sombra would have to rely on the Mexican state’s propaganda apparatus to throw them off. She had no doubt that a media circus would form around Reinhardt.

She checked the time. This wasn't how she meant to spent it. It had been good relief but truly she craved violence. There was time for one more visit before she left...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm worried the story's gotten sluggish. I would love some feedback and/or criticism! I'm spending way too much time writing this thing so it's nice to know people are enjoying it (or how to fix it if its broke)


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Talon moves in but not all is as it seems...

“Amelie?” asked Ana as the ugly blue fluorescent lights flickered on in her cell and the door unlocked.

“No,” said Sombra raising an eyebrow as she entered, “Sombra. Amelie has been visiting you?”

“Every day since I've arrived,” Ana sighed, "its a shame what you've done to her, she used to be so creative"

"Huh," replied Sombra quizzically. She looked past her briefly as she thought. Another disturbing fact. What the hell were Reaper and Widowmaker speaking about with these agents? Sombra turned her eyes back on Ana, giving her an inquiring look. “Day? How can you people tell time?”

“I may be old but I have an ingrained sense of time, its all the waiting you do as a sniper, you know...”

“I see why you and Amelie have _so_ much to talk about,” said Sombra sarcastically. She knelt down to talk to Ana face to face. “But, I'm sorry _abuela_ , I'm not here today to talk. Time is short and I have some bad news”

“Oh, I think I can take it,” said Ana with a smirk.

Sombra smirked back. “Your friends aren't coming for you. Trouble is, I _really really_ want them to come, so I thought we could send your daughter a message. You'd like that right?”

Ana found Sombra's tough girl act almost amusing. With her nails and hair, to her she came off at most as feisty. Ana easily crushed people like this, especially back in the day.

“I have to say dear, with everything I've seen, I don't find you at all intimidating. I've been captured and tortured by omnics before. You know they study you to find the maximum pain they can do without killing you? They even calculate the bare minimum of sleep and food you need to survive to maximize the effect of the torture. You're nothing”

Sombra's smirk disappeared into a frown. She leaned back and Ana watched her eyes slowly wander about the empty cell as she chose her words.

“You know, I was sent to prison years ago so I know something about that, _abuela,_ " she finally spoke, "Do you have any idea what they do to you in prison in my country? Its crazy, they mix up the men and women, they sleep together in the same cells. Nothing happens to you if you have friends. But the idea of a shy girl like me in prison? I mean, look at me. They _really_ went overboard for me”

“I'm sorry to hear that, dear”

"I'm over it," she replied coldly, “I grew up in an orphanage, prison is just the same. But the real story is what happened the day I got there." Her voice wavered slightly from her intensity. "So I get there and I'm processed like everyone else but then some fucking pig tells me I killed his cousin, who was also a cop. He takes me to a little room and... Oh man, did he have a crush on me,” joked Sombra morbidly, “You know what I learned?” She leaned in. “I'll tell you, _abuela_. I learned how to be _worse_ than the cops.” Her voice turned blasé and singsong. “Man, you would not believe how fucked up and angry I was when I got out. Wanna know what I did?”

Ana was silent.

“I found the guy and cut his dick off and fed it to him,” said Sombra becoming deadly serious, “so, forgive me, I happen to think 'scientific torture' seems quite clean”

She looked away from her again, momentarily lost in thought. Ana got the sense that not a soul had ever cared for this woman.

“I'm sorry, Sombra”

Sombra humphed, unamused. “Lets just get this started shall we?” she said grabbing the back of Ana's head and flashing her nails in front of her face, “I can't seem to wait until your lovely daughter gets here...”

* * *

"Oi, Roady, there she is," said Junkrat nudging his partner as they sat on the floor snacking. Sombra had just stepped out of one of the solitary confinement cells. Junkrat scrambled up and over to her to get her attention. "Eya' Sombra"

Sombra's eyes were vacant as she held her hand in front of her, inspecting it meditatively.

"Uh, Sombra?"

She blinked a few times and lowered her hand with a dark smile. "Is it done?"

"Yeah, if anyone tries to override the locks, they're in for a real treat"

"Good," she said simply.

"See? Eager to please. We're not failures," replied Junkrat puffing his chest out and looking pleased with himself, "now, when we getting paid?"

Sombra chuckled. "OK, _amigo,_ so you're not failures. Just follow me, we need to go somewhere private"

Junkrat rubbed his hands together in excitement. "Oi, porkbutt, get ova' here. Its money time!"

"Mmugh," said Roadhog picking up his massive body with surprising speed and lumbering over.

"This way," beckoned Sombra. She tapped on the keypad to Reinhardt's former cell and stepped in. The pair eagerly followed. "Check it out," she said seductively as she gestured towards something nondescript in the cell.

Junkrat squinted in the low light.

"Eh? I don't see it"

"Let me turn on the lights for you," replied Sombra stepping outside.

Suddenly, the door slammed shut and locked behind her.

"Idiots," she muttered.

"Erm, so bad news Roady," said Junkrat, "I think we've been had..."

"Mmuugh"

"Its racism I tell ya..."

 

* * *

 

_Watchpoint Gibraltar_

Pharah was having trouble sleeping. She rolled on to her back causing Angela to shift so her arm was resting on her chest. Pharah sat up a little and put her well-developed arms behind her head looking at the ceiling. Angela had booked them separate commercial flights to Mexico so they would arrive undetected. They would be leaving in a few hours. Hana and Lucio had already left for Guatemala. At least they were finally taking action.

Pharah watched Angela as she slept. Everything about her was pristine, even as she slept. How could she sleep so soundly? Part of why she assumed Angela was so smart was because she could sleep restfully under almost any circumstances. Maybe it was genetic. Regardless, it seemed part and parcel with impeccable ability to control herself. The only thing that seemed to truly bother her were the irrational and violence, both of which she worked against ceaselessly.

Suddenly, Pharah's phone chimed with a message from Athena. Pharah picked up her phone from the night stand. _Secure transmission, unknown contact._ How could an unknown contact manage to send her a secured message? It didn't make sense. She took it.

“Pharah? Hello, are you there? Its Sombra...”

“What? What have you done with my mother? Is she safe?” Pharah shouted causing Angela to stir.

“Just kidding, its a pre-recorded message. By the time you get this I'll be out of here. But don't worry, your mother is fine. I'm calling because I wanted to show you something interesting...”

Sombra held up a strange bloody object in the palm of her hand as her mother sat in manacles behind her hanging her head. Pharah covered her mouth in horror, she immediately knew what it was. Angela shifted uncomfortably and rolled away from the sound.

“Heh, what do you think?” said Sombra with a self-satisfied grin, "I'm not a doctor but the cut looks pretty clean..."

She held the object close to the camera, it was by this point clear that it was an eye. Pharah's hands began to shake. Sombra forced Ana's head up and brought the camera close to Ana's face. “Take a close look, no eyes. Pretty crazy, huh?”

“Mom... no...”

“Fareeha, my daughter, please, don't listen to her. Its a trap-”

“Enough of that,” interrupted Sombra, her voice losing its bemused quality and fake cheerines, “better get here soon, _mija_...”

The video cut. Pharah had had enough. Sombra had just turned her worry and fear for her mother into a raw fury. She was furious at Sombra for obvious reasons but also deeply enraged at Angela for her delays and perfectionism. Her plan was so conditional, it required so much validation. After Hana and Lucio finished their mission it was possible that they would _still_ wait to rescue her mom and she couldn't accept that. Pharah would take matters into her own hands...

* * *

The adrenaline hit Lena's body almost instantaneously causing her head to rocket up from her pillow when the Watchpoint base alarm activated. "Whoa!" She threw on her clothes and zipped through the base's corridors to get to the main Athena console. "Winston what the cock is going on?"

Athena chimed in, "Warning, unauthorized Orca access..."

"It's Pharah, she's commandeering an Orca!"

"What?! Athena, get her on the line, we need to talk to her,” Lena shouted.

"I'm sorry Agent Oxton, the aircraft's communication systems appear to be disabled"

"What is she doing?!" said Lena grabbing her hair.

“Its a good bet she is going to Mexico City...”

“Alone? No, Winston, luv, you have to stop her! There must be an override or something!”

Angela arrived in her underwear and t-shirt. When she saw the console her face contorted into an angry grimace. No one had ever seen Angela display the slightest hint of anger before. “No, what is she doing?!”

“Something must have set her off,” said Tracer watching the aircraft rocket off into the distance on the console screen.

Torbjorn waddled up to the console. “Turn that bloody alarm off, I got a splittin' headache.” Winston shut off the alarm. “Looks like Pharah is doing what we shoulda done all along”

“Idiot, she's flying into a trap,” replied Angela with cool anger, “if she's flying to Mexico she'll be headed directly into Talon anti-air defenses. _That's why we had the plan_ ”

“You were askin' too much of her to sit back while her mother's in hell”

“Sorry Angy, there's no choice now, luv...”

"Winston track her, find where she's most likely to be shot down. Lena, get ready to move out"

"So we're following her then?" asked Lena.

"Now we have no choice," sighed Angela, "Lena, can you pilot an Orca undetected?"

"Erm, its a stretch, luv, they've got a big arse but I'm savvy..."

 

* * *

  

_Orca, Over the Gulf of Mexico_

"They've got to be luring her in, she's flown right over three Talon anti-air nests," shouted Lena over the sounds of the rattling aircraft.

Suddenly, the aircraft had a violent shake.

"Ohh boy, I hate flying," moaned Torbjorn holding his belly, "ey, Lena, any way we can smooth out the ride?"

"Sorry, luv. I've got to fly close to the ocean so there's gonna be some turbulence..."

"An' we can't get Athena to fly?" he complained, "we been flying like this we cleared the Atlantic Ocean"

"Welp, autopilot only works if I'm above a decision height of 200ft, I'm afraid," said Lena trying to keep focused on flying, "so no"

"We're flying below 200ft?!" shouted Torbjorn, "I think I'm gonna be sick..."

"This is Talon airspace, luv. If I fly any higher we'll be blown out of the sky"

"You're doing great, Lena," said Angela taking the tone she used when reassuring fellow professional woman, although her face seemed to indicate that she was straining to keep her composure.

"Enjoying the ride, Ms. Blackwood?" shouted Lena into the back.

Emma was inconsolable. The veneer of her upper class composure had collapsed as she was forced to periodically stumble to the bathroom and vomit with a force that could be called passionate. "Your piloting is shambolic!" she yelled up front.

"Whoops," muttered Lena,

"Was that a 'whoops,' Lena?" asked Angela

"Heh heh," she laughed nervously, "yeah, I, uh, might of lost her"

Torbjorn looked at the ceiling, wishing to God he wasn't in the hands of a dare devil pilot flying an aircraft that hadn't been inspected or maintained since Overwatch was defunded. Angela unbuckled herself and made her way to the cockpit. A violent shake caused her to briefly lose her balance in the doorway. Once in the cockpit she held on to the back of the pilot's seat and pressed against the wall to prop herself up. "What happened?"

"She disappeared," said Tracer, "erm, right there." She quickly pulled one hand off the joystick and pointed to central Mexico on the world map. When the plane shook violently she snapped her hand back to the stick.

"What happened?"

"Dunno, mighta been shot down..."

Angela glared at the map as she mulled through a variety of anxious and unpleasant thoughts. 

"I know what she means to you, luv," said Tracer, "we'll get her back"

"Keep your course," ordered Angela, "this mission can't fall apart... and fly faster if you can take the risk"

"Aye aye," replied Tracer as she gave her head a doleful nod and fed more power to the engines.

"Nooo," moaned Torbjorn.

 

* * *

 

Pharah kicked off a heavy metal panel that had fallen on her during the crash. 

At the sound of Athena's "Warning: Incoming Missile," she'd donned her helmet and grabbed her rocket launcher before taking a crash position. Pharah could fly, but she wasn't Lena, there was no way she could out maneuver a surface-to-air missile with an Orca. The missile must have been meant to disable the aircraft rather than destroy it because instead of exploding mid air the missile had only succeeded in making her extremely pissed off. Exposed electrical components sparked and flashed as Pharah stood up and checked her suit's damage. She ran a diagnostic check. It was minimal.

"Welcome to Mexico, agent," came Athena's distorted voice.

Two black armored personnel carriers arrived at the crash site and encircled the downed Orca. Their bay doors dropped and two squads of Talon stormtroopers hustled out. Reaper ominously stepped into the harsh desert sunlight, surveying his quarry.

"There are Overwatch agents in that Orca. Find them, I want them alive," he ordered brusquely. 

Suddenly, a rocket fired out of the wreckage detonating the APC. The stormtroopers quickly ran to cover and returned plasma fire in the direction of the crash. Another missile hurled towards them as they witnessed a person in a suit of armor rocket out of the Orca's carcass leaving a huge exhaust plume. The troopers waved the smoke away in front of their faces and attempted to scope out their foe.

"Over there!" shouted a trooper pointing skyward before a well-placed missile detonated next to  him.

The troopers turned their guns towards the sky and fired seemingly at random at their elusive darting target.

"Focus fire! Focus fire!" the squad leader shouted before he too was silenced by an explosion.

The jet pack woman fired her engines and rocketed towards the sun to blind them then took cover on a nearby plateau. Reaper grunted and lumbered towards one of the APCs as his troops fired uselessly at their target and exploded around him.

"Where's Widowmaker when I need her?" he grumbled, "oh, right..."

He entered the armored vehicle, took a guided missile launcher from its weapon rack and loaded it. Reaper stepped back into the sun and got on one knee as he peered into the view finder.

"Come out, you..." he grumbled to himself as he scanned for Pharah.

"Behind!"

Reaper quickly turned about face and switched his stance. The viewfinder blipped as it locked on to the rocketeer.

"There you are"

Pharah's on-board computer's chirped indicating that a missile was gaining a lock. She tried to maneuver away but the electronic chirps intensified until a warning alarm chimed.

_Fwoom!_

"Warning, incoming missile"

Pharah tracked it with her computer as it arced towards her. She grit her teeth and set her rocket to airburst, desperately trying to line up a shot. It was stupid but there was no other way out.

She fired.

Perfect shot.

The missile exploded in a fireball knocking her back against a cliff side. She fell into the canyon below. Reaper lowered his weapon and gestured to his squad.

"After her!"

Pharah shook her head and came to inside the dry riverbed. Again, her armor had saved her life.

Suddenly, she heard the sound of whistles and taunts around her. She swiveled her head. Where was it coming from? She scrambled to pick up her rocket launcher but several plasma shots knocked it out of her hands.

"Show yourself!" she shouted.

" _Hola, senorita_. That must've hurt," came a young man's voice from behind. Pharah turned and to her horror a face appeared wearing neon paint and a black beret then a body sporting pixilated desert camouflage and a stubby plasma rifle with a side clip. He was young, he wore an arrogant smile. "I saw that, it had to hurt"

"Who are you?"

"I'm with the Cuerpo de Fuerzas Especiales, my friends call me 'el intelligente,'" he replied, "and you are in deep shit"

He aimed his rifle at her as 6 men and women in similar uniform and face paint uncloaked. One of his compadres holstered his weapon and took her rocket launcher. Suddenly, there was a whistle.

"Heads up, Talon's coming!"

"We'll talk later," he said then recloaked.

 _What the hell was going on here?_ thought Pharah. Not too far off she heard heavy vehicles roll up and imperative shouts. Talon was here. Suddenly, to Pharah's horror she saw smoke pour in from around the corner and a man in a barn owl mask seemingly materialize in front of her. Pharah pushed herself back as the figure approached. Talon stormtroopers took positions around her.

"Not so fast," said the smart one uncloaking next to her, "she's ours"

His rifle was aimed at Reaper. Several more CFE soldiers uncloaked around the Talon troopers. They had them surrounded.

"Who are you?"

"El intelligentes, special forces"

"A whole squad of them?" muttered Reaper as he surveyed the neon painted faces of the Mexican troops, "I can hardly stand one..."

"Are you listening, _señor_? We're telling you to fuck off"

"We're in control here, not you," menaced Reaper.

"Oh yeah? It was our missile that brought down the plane, not yours. So, butt out"

"Then we have a problem..."

The Talon troopers shifted uncomfortably. The CFE troops eyed the Talon soldiers for any aggressive movement, rapidly switching their guns from target to target to keep them pinned.

The smart one nodded at one of his squad. She fired, doming one of the heavily armored Talon troopers. Immediately, a Talon trooper reacted and returned fire nicking her shoulder. Suddenly, Reaper collapsed into smoke then reformed in front of el intelligente, grabbing his neck and lifting him off the ground. The CFE soldiers turned their guns on Reaper in surprise but didn't fire at risk of injuring their leader. The combat stopped before it had started.

"I'll deal with you the way I deal with the real one," he said as he choked him, "tell your men to stand down"

"I can't-" he rasped, "I-"

"Do it..."

El intelligente's eyes began to roll into his head.

"I'm becoming impatient with your so-called 'president'"

He threw him to the ground. At that moment Reaper's eyes fell on Pharah. One of the CFE troops had returned her rocket launcher. Whatever Reaper had for a heart skipped a beat as she pumped a rocket into his chest. He flew back against the canyon wall and was detonated along with three Talon troopers.

"Hey, not bad," said el intelligentes lifting his head to look up at her from the ground.

The rest of the Talon troopers retreated. Suddenly, the wind picked up. There was a snap and a swirl of black smoke. Reaper was back.

"Die! Die! Die!"

Bullets flew out of the small tornado of smoke and the CFE squad was obliterated. The survivors cloaked and retreated.

Pharah held her hand against her bloodied chest armor, she'd taken a direct shotgun blast to the body.

Reaper stepped over el intelligentes body.

"Not so smart now..."

He approached Pharah. She pushed herself away from him with her legs as he tried to get on top of her. Although she was too injured to defend herself, she was still prepared to fight. "You," he said, "I guess Sombra isn't totally useless..."

She froze after he spoke, he'd been farther away and his voice was so distorted before but closer Pharah recognized the voice from her childhood. "Gabriel? Is that you?" she asked letting her guard down.

Reaper remained silent as he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. She felt her mind bubble from blood loss, this felt familiar somehow... Pharah looked at the bodies of the dead CFE troops as she was hauled out. El intelligentes seemed to stir and make eye contact with her. He cloaked just as she passed out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still following along? This has been a doozy to write but I'm cruising towards the ending. I've got most of it written already so stay tuned. No doubt heavy editing will ensue.


	11. Chapter 11

Lucio and Hana checked in late to the Casa Santo Domingo in their business attire, trying their best to look like they were supposed to be there.

"Sorry, our computer systems have been spotty all day," said the concierge as she searched the computer for their reservation, "cellphones are weird too, I can get audio calls but not video. Maybe it's reception. Ah, here we are, Dos Santos. Sorry for the delay. Welcome ambassador"

Dr. Ziegler had pulled some strings last minute to make them into UN Goodwill Ambassadors and get them an invite. Their cover seemed to be working.

The hotel was undeniably expensive looking with natural stone masonry and exposed "mission oak" woodwork. The hotel, in actuality, was a converted monastery, behind the concierge desk sat a several hundred year old oil rendition of The Last Supper. Monastic and religious symbols littered the hotel, tucked between postmodern and corporate furnishings.

They were taken to their room, a cozy space with walls the color of sun dried adobe and an oak ceiling with exposed rafters. In the middle sat their king sized bed where Sombra lay in a little black dress pointing her machine pistol at them. The door slammed behind them.

"Hey," she said fanning her fingers.

"I don't believe it," said Lucio in horror.

The moment Hana caught sight of her she balled her fists and took a combat stance, preparing to charge. Sombra, however, snapped her fingers and Talon goons in light body armor stepped behind them with pistols drawn.

"Heh, had to do it quick or she'd charge me," said Sombra getting off the bed and sauntering towards them, "What? Are you surprised?"

"Murderous bitch," muttered Hana as the goons tied their hands with zip ties.

"Heyy, looking pretty good, Hana," she said with a hiccup, "I wasn't sure who Overwatch would send, but this is great because you two can finally see me at work.  "

"Are you drunk?" asked Lucio.

Sombra sighed. "Yes, _obviously_ ," she replied impatiently, "you know they don't allow drugs or alcohol at Talon? And you wouldn't believe what I've been doing to get laid"

Hana looked at the ceiling as if to ask "why God?"

"But that's not important," she said stepping up to the couple and giving them an awkward hug, "what's important is that I've missed my little _amiguitos_." Her voice became sarcastically diminutive. "I love you guys," she said bitterly, "I think of myself as your Talon aunt. It's why I keep a close eye on you..." She walked back to the bed and picked up the bottle of red wine she left at the foot taking a long drink. "I know it's appreciated, you could say I'm your biggest fan"

"What the hell are you on about, Sombra?"

She pointed her gun at Lucio.

"Don't rush me," she said darkly. "I've got a lot of faults, one is that I have the quote 'emotional intelligence of an 8 year old'"

"Fuck," muttered Lucio.

Sombra had heard everything. He knew he was dead to her.

"The other is that I absolutely cannot stand traitors. How's Overwatch, by the way? They argue much?" She took another drink. "The _other_ , and this is news to me, is that I am apparently a very jealous and possessive lover." She cackled and flopped herself on the bed. The Talon soldiers exchanged nervy glances. “Oh man, Lucio, you really fucked me up, _cabron_. Its got me so  _cranky...”_

"What is she talking about?" asked Hana.

"I'm just a little confused, Hana," she said twirling her hand in the air, "you've been driving me nuts too, _chica_. And frankly, I can't deal with it, so I won't. That's why I brought my sexy friend"

Widowmaker lowered from the ceiling in the manner of her namesake and landed on her feet with a little acrobatic flip.

"Allo," she said with a smile.

"She's blue..." muttered Hana.

"Look at her. She's so hot,” mused Sombra drunkenly, “Widowmaker is great because she doesn't think for herself or feel emotions. Not like me, I have to get _wasted_ to be like that..."

She cleared the rest of her bottle and got up off the bed.

"I've got a date with Latin America," she said stepping past them towards the door, "Widowmaker, do the honors. _Adios_ guys"

Sombra swayed out and shut the door behind her. Widowmaker eyed her prey.

"The famous Lucio and Hana..." she said cocking her rifle, "you must really be something to her"

"Yet here we are..." replied Hana coolly.

Widowmaker humphed and kicked Lucio down to his knees.

"You should be grateful, she said to make it painless"

Widow put the barrel Lucio's forehead. He closed his eyes and prayed something freak accident or lucky break would happen. His luck had always held up, at least it had until he met Sombra.

Suddenly, Widowmaker felt the goons' eyes on her and realized something, these were not her men. She saw a goon go for his gun and flicked her gun barrel from Lucio's head firing a silenced bullet into the goon's face. The second goon fired, nicking her shoulder. She recoiled briefly losing her grip on her gun. Widow tried to recover and get another shot off but the goon already had his gun against her head.

"Drop it"

The accent gave it away. She'd been had. Widowmaker tossed the gun to the floor.

Several men donning suits and guns rushed into the room weapons drawn. They freed Lucio and Hana from their binds.

"Well, this is unexpected," huffed Widowmaker.

"You two, the session has already started," said the turncoat Talon, "go meet the Brazilian delegation"

"What-what-what, is going on here?!" stuttered Lucio.

"No time. You're needed downstairs"

"I'm not arguing," said Hana going for the door after being freed from her binds.

"Hana!" called Lucio stumbling to her side.

" _Señor!_ Wait, you'll need your weapon to protect the delegates!"

Sombra shook her head to try and sober up as she drunkenly strut through the stone hallways towards the hotel's conference room. Her high heels clicked against the floor as she was flanked on either side by a squad of Talon operatives.

A guard outside the conference room spotted her.

"Stop right there!"

She haphazardly lifted her gun and sprayed him with 10 bullets and nonchalantly continued her strut.

There was the sound of silenced gun fire from outside the main door to the conference hall. A bullet ridden body burst through the door midway through the director of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights' speech denouncing the revolution in Mexico. The room gasped and as Sombra stormed in. Two guards reacted and flanked Sombra. She lazily lifted her gun and sprayed right then left catching both in the chin. The guards slumped forward from their momentum, dead.

"OK, anyone else?" she shouted.

A guard securing a back exit fired from behind the stand supporting a large OSA seal at the back of the room. The bullet embedded itself near her head in the heavy door behind Sombra. She recoiled and reflexively squeezed her machine pistol's trigger. The speakers ducked for cover behind the desk in front of the massive seal as her wild spray of fire panned across. Bullets sparked and ricocheted off the heavy seal until her drunken aim found the guard and he was pelted with bullets.

Sombra blinked and looked at her gun in wide-eyed surprise.

"Heh, he almost got me..." she muttered.

Sounds of a gun fight outside erupted as Sombra's mercs secured the building.

"Nobody move," shouted Sombra, "I got something to say..."

Sombra walked briskly around the rectangular arrangement of tables and made her way to the head table. The delegates cowered away from her as she passed. Low murmurs of surprise and fear emerged from the delegations.

"She's alive?"

She stepped to the podium in front of the massive OSA seal.

"This thing on?" she said tapping the mike. She picked up the mike and paced as she talked. "OK, so I prepared a little speech but I'm too-" She hiccuped and rolled her wrist. "-whatever to say it. It was about Mexico not being invited, how the revolution will last forever, Los Muertos blah blah. But I am so over politics..."

Widowmaker flicked her hair with a sigh. The man she had just choked to death lay slumped on floor in front of her. The room was now littered with freshly killed bodies. She pressed her earpiece.

"Reaper, we have a problem..."

Sombra continued to address the fearful crowd. "No, this is about more than politics. This is about world domination. So, this is for my new friends, no need to mention names, the world will get to know them very soon... but not you"

Hana and Lucio hustled to the conference room as Lucio scrambled to get his audio gun backpack on. They heard scattered shouts and gunfire. Hana drew her pink gun.

"No one survives," said Sombra.

The Talon mercs at the door split into two groups and began to exterminate the delegates on either side of the room. Sombra reloaded and mercilessly unloaded into the delegates cowering next to her.

Hana and Lucio were pinned down with security in the hallway by Talon thugs. They watched several storm in leaving only a few at the door. Suddenly, there was a burst of fire followed by the sound of reloading, Hana broke cover and fired picking off a Talon merc guarding the door. One of the security guards used the opportunity to nab another with a well-placed shot.

"Go go! They are killing the delegates!"

Lucio ran in and dove through the door activating his sound barrier.

"Now! Run! You're protected!" he shouted.

Hana and several security staff stormed in guns blazing as the surviving delegates scrambled out under fire. Sombra was forced to take cover. She watched her men fall one by one.

" _Chinga!_ " cursed Sombra. She pressed her earpiece. "Widow, I thought I told you to take care of them!"

"There was a snag"

"Oh yeah?" said Sombra reloading with a hiccup, "that's pretty funny coming from you. Did you miss?"

"They had help," replied Widowmaker coolly.

 _Miguel_ , thought Sombra.

"Meet me at the helipad"

" _Compris_ "

Sombra took off her heels and held them in her left hand planning her next move. She exhaled with a hiccup then broke cover spraying a massive arc of bullets over the advancing security team. The wild spray forced them to take cover.

"She's getting away!" shouted Hana.

Sombra fired at the lock on the back door and kicked it open making good on her feet towards the helipad. A guard ran to the door firing several shots at Sombra as she ran. His fire was silenced when he was pegged in the head with a well-placed shot from Widowmaker.

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" Sombra cursed as she made her way through the foliage to the rock face underneath the helipad.

She looked up at the imposing climb and dropped her high heels. "OK, lets do this..." she said psyching herself up.

Sombra started to climb. Several bullets impacted off the rocks near Sombra's hands.

"Fuck this, I'm not getting shot," she said lowering herself back down. She pressed her earpiece. "Widow, swing around and pick me up"

Widowmaker stepped into the aircraft from the loading ramp and quickly made her way to the cockpit. She placed her hand on the pilot's shoulder. "We're going to her..."

Sombra heard the blast of the Predator ship taking off above her. She activated her thermoptic camouflage as more guards came out of the back entrance.

"This is going to be tight, stand by," said the pilot over his compiece.

The aircraft maneuvered between the cliff side and the building rotating towards the guards with its mini guns.

"I can see you, lower the doors!" hissed Sombra over her com.

She picked up her heels and held her gun under her armpit.  She pulled out a translocator beacon with her free hand and squinted as she aimed it at the aircraft's loading bay. "OK, steady..." she muttered.

With a hiccup she tossed the beacon. She overshot her target but the beacon bounced off the tail of the aircraft and onto the ramp.

 _FWOOSH!_ She translocated.

"Glad you could join us," said Widowmaker.

The tone was snide.

Before she could respond, however, Sombra immediately threw up off the side of the ramp. The aircraft continued its slow rotation to line up its targets as the chain-guns mounted on the aircraft’s wing pylons whirred up to speed. The pilot lit up the guards hunting for Sombra with anti-material rounds.

Lucio and Hana stepped out to witness the sleek black Talon aircraft pull away before bursting its engines and rocketing out at hypersonic speeds. Dead security staff littered the area near the convention hall exit.

"God damn it!" shouted Lucio throwing his audio gun down. Hana gave him a concerned look. "Actually that's expensive, let me get that," he mumbled.

"Dr. Ziegler, she escaped," said Hana over her earpiece.

"And the delegates?"

Lucio pressed his earpiece to talk. "We got as many out as we could but it's not looking good. What's your status?"

"Tracer is flying us below Talon radar into Mexico-"

"Whoops, getting a bit dodgy here..." they heard Tracer say after a violent shake.

"-the AI can't do it. She'll upload her flight path to Athena and you can take her route. Sorry, that's all"

"No word from Pharah?"

"No," replied Angela curtly, "we're rendezvousing in Mexico City, we're uploading the coordinates. Something tells me you'll have an easier time than we will getting into Mexico..." 

"Understood"

Lucio sighed as he looked at the contrails left by the stealthy Talon aircraft.

"Sombra, what are you doing?" muttered Lucio pensively.

After a moment Hana grunted disdainfully and put her hand on her hip as Lucio stared in silence. He turned to her when he felt her skeptical glare on him and recoiled.

"You muttered 'Sombra, what are you doing?' with tone of introspective longing," she accused.

Lucio shook to.

"I did what with a what?"

"And what did she mean by 'jealous and possessive lover?' She was talking about you and her, Lucio. Don't try and get out of it"

Hana continued to glare at him. Lucio cleared his throat. "I don't know, maybe she has feelings for me? This has got to be complicated for her"

She folded her arms.

"Yeah, enough feelings to make our deaths quick and painless. God, she tried to kill us twice and I still feel like a third wheel," complained Hana. She continued to eye him in silence. Finally, she broke her withering glare with a sigh. "Come on, let's go kill your girlfriend…"

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not going to lie, I found the [hackerkill](https://hackerkill.tumblr.com/) hashtag on Tumblr and thought it was the worst ship in the world. However, I found it weirdly compelling considering the way I developed the Talon characters (they haaaate each other) and decided to try it out.


End file.
